


All Our Yesterdays

by pain_somnia



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Donna and Jackie are BEST FRIENDS, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, Mutual Pining, Time Travel, and hey why not have Buddy be part of the group and Jackie's friend?, so that's just for anyone that may need it, technically this is a fix it fic huh, the underage tag is because they are in fact high school students, they are going to be so messy, you'll start to realize this fic is entirely self indulgent af but i hope you all like it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 116,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23352883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pain_somnia/pseuds/pain_somnia
Summary: After the events of "Street Fighting Man", Jackie and Hyde wish more than anything that things had happened differently.The next morning, they wake up in the past, on the morning of Vanstock where Jackie promptly makes one dream come true. They are not together—but, soon enough, one change snowballs into another...
Relationships: Buddy Morgan/Fez, Jackie Burkhart & Buddy Morgan, Jackie Burkhart & Donna Pinciotti, Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde
Comments: 147
Kudos: 300





	1. a sharp left in a different direction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loknnica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loknnica/gifts).



> Hello, Hello. Just some notes that I think are super important for this fic to make sense because it is a time travel au and well...they had 4 seasons worth of episodes that we were supposed to believe all belonged to 1 school year and that made no sense.
> 
> Events of the first season and partially second season are condensed into the 1975-1976 school year. The basement gang has been aged down so that they are sophomores and Jackie is a freshman. We are ignoring that Eric shouldn’t be able to drive. He wasn’t given the Vista Cruiser until after his 16th birthday making some episodes void and/or changed for plot purposes. Hell, maybe Hyde could have been the driver since he was 16 before the rest of them except for Kelso, but Red wouldn’t trust Kelso.
> 
> Hyde was aged down even more so instead of being 3 months younger than Kelso he is a year younger like the rest of the gang (minus Jackie). This makes him second oldest and their anger at Kelso being a year older more justified.
> 
> Episodes from seasons 2-4 have been reordered to make more sense as they all exist in the gang’s junior year of high school and T7S had them juniors for like 3 or 4 years. There will be no retconning of Jackie being a good student, she will remain academically smart and on task.
> 
> Laurie was aged up one year so she's 3 years older than Eric instead of 2.
> 
> Disclaimer: This story will utilize characters and situations that are the copyright of The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC . tomaday is in no way associated with the creator or producers of That '70s Show and no copyright infringement is intended. Obviously this is a fanfic meant solely for the entertainment of the fanfic author and (hopefully) it’s readers. 
> 
> thank you thatshipcat for helping me with the summary ily

Something was off. Completely and totally off.

Usually after a night of crying Jackie woke up with a headache. She couldn’t complain that she woke up nice and breezy, body relaxed as if nothing had ever happened. As if she didn’t cry more tears over a boy that called their future “crap.”

The sooner the pain hurt less, the easier everything would be. The easier it would be to compartmentalize her feelings for Steven Hyde and put them in a box inside of herself to be hidden just like her “Steven Box” was hidden in her closet.

Stretching her arms up over her head, Jackie froze and stared at her bare arm. Last night she had put on her favorite comfy flannel pajamas, the perfect set for when she wanted to feel warm and safe. Certain outfits were just as practical as they were cute.

But she hadn’t woken up wearing her cute flannel pajamas that were perfect for winter nights.

_ Why am I in my nightgown? _ Jackie sat up and examined her torso.  _ Wait! Where are my—? _

Jackie screamed in frustration as she clutched at her breasts—or the lack of them. She was small with slight curves, but they were perfect! Perfectly shaped and round not these small barely formed lumps she hadn’t had since she was fifteen.

For the second time since she woke up she froze. Taking a deep breath she turned to slide out of bed and put on her fuzzy slippers. She stared at her feet, eyeing the old slippers she used when she was a sophomore before they had to be replaced.

“What the hell is going on?” Jackie huffed as she examined her nightstand. Why would she have a photograph of Michael Kelso by her bed? Just last night she had gone to bed with a couple shot of her and Steven face down as it had been since she had broken up with him weeks prior.

She clutched at her hair, tightening her fingers around the curly locks. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her breaths but it didn’t feel like she was taking in any oxygen. The pull on her roots hurt too much for her to still be sleeping. Squeezing her eyes shut, she mouthed a prayer to herself. She would open her eyes and everything would be back in its rightful place. It just had to be so.

Opening her eyes to the sight of her old purple suitcase with its matching traveling makeup case sitting by her bedroom door, Jackie screamed again.

She hadn’t seen that case since her sophomore year. The luggage set she used now was decidedly more adult—a lovely shade of carmine that was just right for her  _ eighteen year old  _ self.

_ I swear to God if my wardrobe isn’t up to date, heads are going to roll. _

Jackie stomped to her closet and pushed through all of the cute clothes hanging in the proper color and seasonal order it was supposed to be in. The only problem was that most of her clothes, while super cute, were out of season for 1979. Most of them were trendy back in 1976 when she had first bought them.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Jackie clutched her elbows and slid down her closet door. She didn’t even want to check the rest of her room. She didn’t need to look at her records to find out that the ones given to her by Steven were gone. She was sure if she dug through her closet she wouldn’t find a shoe box decorated and dedicated to hiding all of his notes and the ticket stubs from their dates and other keepsakes.

Lightly knocking her head back against her closet door repeatedly, Jackie let out an expletive worthy of Red Forman.

What was she going to do?

* * *

The first person Jackie wanted to see was Steven. It angered her a little that no matter what he was the one her body, her mind, her soul would seek out. Just yesterday she had been crying her eyes out behind a pillar  _ in public  _ over him and yet now she was ready to run right to him.

Fate had it that the first person she did end up seeing was Fez of all people. As good of a friend as he was, she wasn’t as close to him as she was to Steven or Donna. He wouldn’t have been her first choice for comfort in a situation like this. Maybe if her hot rollers weren’t working properly, but not for finding out that she had slipped into some sort of crazy time rift and was now back in her fifteen year old body.

Great. And now she was sounding like dorky Eric, letting herself think about stuff like time travel.

Fez had come to walk with her to the Forman residence and to tote her luggage. Luckily for her, Fez wasn’t observant enough to recognize that her brain fog had anything to do with the fact that she wasn’t the Jackie he knew.

_ As if he would even know a thing about time travel or recognize it in a person. _

He had fumbled through his explanation for why he was at her door, reminding her that she had called him the night before to help carry her stuff because she couldn’t have Michael picking her up or it would ruin her surprise.

_ Ugh. _ Jackie wrinkled her nose in disgust.  _ Why couldn’t I have been sent to a time before I ever let Michael sleep with me? _

Vanstock. Her first experience attending wouldn’t have been so awful had it not turned out that whorey Laurie had been sleeping with her first boyfriend while she had been dating him. It had tainted the memory of her good time.

Jackie had thought that the two of them could be really good friends considering they liked all of the same things. It was almost like having the missing half of what she wished Donna was like. All of the girly attributes that Donna just didn’t understand why they were so important.

The gang had all gone again the previous year in her original timeline and that was  _ much _ better. But then again, she had spent the weekend with Steven and they had snuggled in his double sleeping bag. She had almost forgotten that they were sleeping on the ground.

Almost.

And with the reminder of Steven and their time together came the deep ache in her chest that was always present since she had broken up with him after the LOPP’s Christmas party. God, she missed him—missed them.

That was the one positive of the time travel. Yes it hurt, but her feelings for Steven were still there with her and her thoughts were her own despite being back in her underdeveloped fifteen year old body.

She wasn’t going to get over that. Applying her makeup on that morning had been frustrating each time she had to look at her rounder cheeks, still full of baby fat.

_ It’s a good thing I’m super cute no matter how old. _ Jackie turned her nose up at her own wandering thoughts. It was hard to focus on what was important when she couldn’t find the source of her problem.

At the moment all she could do was compartmentalize everything and create some order by what was a priority and by what she could actually fix within her own power.

Just because she was her fifteen year old self, it didn’t mean she had to live her fifteen year old self’s life. She was Jackie Burkhart and she got what she wanted when she wanted. And what she wanted was to not be that girl she was when she was sixteen.

It was a few weeks too soon but there was one matter she could take into her own hands right that moment. She just wished she had made her decision before Fez had carried her stuff all the way to the Formans’ house. Now she was going to be stuck taking it all back herself.

Going to Vanstock had seemed like a good idea when she had been faced with choosing between being with her friends or alone with her thoughts in an empty house. The housekeeper had been given the weekend off when her fifteen year old self had made the decision to surprise Michael with her attendance on the group’s road trip and she wasn’t in the right state of mind to be by herself.

“Jackie!” Donna was the first person to greet her when she walked up the Forman’s driveway. Her hair was totally flat and that god awful red but her cheeks still bloomed like she had a sunburn when she was flustered.

Jackie had to resist wrapping her arms around her best friend. She wanted nothing more than a hug and for someone to tell her that everything was going to be okay but this wasn’t the moment, especially when she knew what was making Donna so nervous.

She barely registered the mentions of mud and Canadians. Jackie’s gaze drifted from Donna to her future ex-boyfriend who stood in the back in his worn out denim jacket. She had to remind herself that this was  _ Hyde _ not Steven. That while he was complicit in letting her heart get broken, this wasn’t the man that owed her any loyalty. It was just the boy that got his kicks where he could and didn’t recognize that what he was doing was terrible.

This was also the boy that would get his heart broken again in a few months and Jackie bit her lower lip to keep from shouting about everything she knew. This Steven Hyde wasn’t hers to protect like when he first met his real father.

And if she shared those secrets there were worse things that could happen to her than waking up almost a full bra cup size and a half smaller.

“Where’s Michael?” Jackie asked before anyone else could fumble some sort of weak reason as to why she shouldn’t go with them to Vanstock. Any moment now Steven was going to try to convince her that it was a fantastic idea regardless of the fact that Michael was bringing along the girl he was having an affair with.

“Jackie.” Steven stared her down, expression more solemn than she recalled him looking at sixteen. Last time when they stood in this driveway, he had been gleeful, downright giddy. “I need to talk to you about something.”

She wasn’t ready for this, whatever this was. His hair was longer and blonder, he wasn’t as muscular, but his voice was still the same deep timbre she loved and even though it should have been easy to separate this Steven from her Steven, she couldn’t do it. Jackie was convinced one look, one direct look, into her eyes and he would know everything.

Steven Hyde of 1976 would know she loved him.

“Can it wait?” Jackie’s gaze shifted anywhere but his face. “I really need to talk to Michael before you guys go.”

“Wait,” Eric looked back and forth between his best friend and her, “you’re not coming with us then? And why do  _ you _ need to talk to Jackie?”

Jackie really didn’t need this right now. Eric Forman could hate her some other time but he wasn’t going to be wasting her time with his questions. “Makes no sense why I would be going.” Jackie crossed her arms across her chest protectively. “Doubt he’d let me come along after I dump him.”

“What?” Came everyone’s shocked response.

* * *

Hyde leaned his head back and closed his eyes, propping his feet on the spool table. They should have been on the road over an hour ago. He should have been roaming the grounds and meeting up with his friends from Kenosha, dropping acid or smoking a joint in between the different musical acts performing.

The last time he had been there in 1976, that was exactly what he had done as well as hooking up with any willing hot chick. The desire for acid or a girl had significantly dropped since then, both for different reasons.

Opening his eyes, Hyde watched the smoke float in lazy circles up towards the ceiling. The swirls had his focus more than the conversation currently being had in the basement.

“You were just frenching Laurie not even ten minutes before she broke up with you, dillhole!” Donna huffed, passing the joint on to Forman.

That comment had Hyde peering at Donna from the corner of his eye. When she had discovered that Kelso had been cheating on Jackie back in his own 1976, she hadn’t warned Jackie at all. She still hadn’t warned her this time around, only weakly attempted to get her to change her mind about going on the trip. Not that Jackie needed to change her mind. She had shown up and broke up with Kelso in the simplest most blunt way possible.

_ “I don’t love you and you’re a cheating bastard. Have fun at Vanstock.” _ And then she just skipped away.

The divergence in the timeline was going to be interesting.

Waking up had been a trip. Hyde had woken up thinking he  _ had _ been tripping. It had been so long since he kept his hair long enough to be as blonde as it was and he felt lighter than usual━his limbs no longer carrying the extra weight of the muscles he had developed over the past couple of years.

Time travel. It was a subject that only Forman out of everyone he could possibly have a serious discussion with. Kelso at this stage wouldn’t even try to jump into the conversation unless it was about a time machine that could take him back in time before Jackie broke up with him.

“Shouldn’t we be glad that we’re finally free?” Forman shrugged his shoulders passing him the joint. Hyde didn’t honor him with a response, only taking a long drag before skipping right over Kelso to Fez.

Kelso didn’t even notice that he had been skipped in the circle. His head hung low and his eyes were glazed over with unshed tears. Hyde cared for them just as much as he did the first time Jackie had broken up with Kelso━not at all.

Tears from his friend over a girl that he himself loved meant nothing.

Kelso crying over Jackie was a joke. It was a joke back when all she was was the bitchy anchor around Kelso’s neck. It was a joke when he got caught cheating with Laurie.

“We were in love,” Kelso choked out, voice thick and watery from crying.

“Kelso.” Hyde snapped his fingers in front of Kelso’s face and tried to capture his attention. “No you weren’t. You were cheating on her with the Earth Mother Whore.”

Kelso blinked at him and swallowed hard. “Doesn’t mean I don’t love Jackie.”

Rolling his eyes, Hyde took the joint back from Donna and took the last drag from the remaining stub. He coughed as the burnt smoke hit his lungs and pinched the dying ember on the paper between his index finger and thumb. The high from the marijuana wasn’t enough for Hyde to tolerate listening to Kelso talk about being in love with  _ his _ chick.

Ex chick. Future ex chick.

Time travel was such a fucked concept. It was one thing to hide a hurt that he had reasons for having, but the hurt he felt wasn’t for the Jackie of 1976 but the Jackie of 1979. He was hiding a deep ache in his chest that was caused by a girl that had probably been crying over his moron friend the night before, not him.

Miles away there was a shrill, loud, bitchy cheerleader who was probably stuffing all of her Kelso paraphernalia into a box right at that moment and it was killing him that he couldn’t have her. And because of this time travel bullshit she didn’t even know that she had ever been his and he had been hers.

“I can’t believe we’re missing Vanstock all because of Jackie,” Forman scoffed. “Leave it to her to ruin everything.”

“Forman,” Hyde turned to him in disgust, “really? Are you forgetting certain important details?”

“I still can’t believe you all knew!” Donna slapped her hands on the spool table. She glared at them all and then stood up from her seat. “I’m going to go see Jackie.”

“Wait!” Fez called after her. “I’ll go with you!”

Hyde reached over and pulled Fez by the back of his shirt, forcing him back on the mushroom ottoman. “Sit down!” Like hell was he going to let an infatuated Fez try and take advantage of the situation again.

Fez wrinkled his nose and gave him a disgruntled look before shrugging it off. “So what happened with Laurie?”

Hyde rolled his eyes yet again. Right after Jackie had confronted Kelso, Laurie had taken off when it was obvious they weren’t going anywhere. She had looked downright gleeful when they all had dragged their stuff back inside, looking miserable. She took one look at a sad Kelso and shrugged it off. No one knew where she went after everything went down, but Laurie made herself scarce as soon as it was clear that no one was going anywhere.

Kelso was a dumbass, but the consequences for his actions lead to Hyde finding out that there was more to Jackie than they all originally thought. There was just one very important difference in this timeline.

Jackie wasn’t heartbroken over her split with Kelso. In 1976, Jackie had told Kelso it was over, tears thickening her voice, and then threw herself at Hyde for comfort. This time, Jackie tossed out the break up statement casually with the same attitude she would give a shoe department employee her size on whatever clogs took her fancy and then went on her merry way.

Hyde didn’t know what to make of that. As annoyed as he had been when he was last sixteen years old, Kelso and Jackie’s first real break up was the catalyst to his and Jackie’s relationship changing.

This was his punishment at last from the government. Kelso threatened the president and once they all were lulled into a false sense of security, Hyde was shifted to a different time and was forced to relive his teen years in a simulation that altered the events of his life out of his favor.

Out of his favor? Shouldn’t this be what he wanted? Hyde was back in a time that he and Jackie could just hang out without any of the complications of dating.

But life was a bitch because that’s not how it worked.

His body was closer to seventeen than twenty but his memories were still there. He could still remember the way Jackie felt under his fingertips, how she breathed into him when he laid kisses onto her inviting mouth...and how she looked with eyes full of tears from a broken heart.

_ Couldn’t rat out a friend? _ Hyde inwardly scoffed. Maybe his sixteen year old self had a point, but nineteen year old him had more loyalty to the tiny loud girl than his doofus friend.

Government simulation or not, he wasn’t going to let Jackie go through all of that bullshit again. Hyde had planned on warning Jackie before she surprised him and took things into her own hands.

“You could have just—and I’ll say this yet again,” Forman flattened his palms together and pressed his fingers to his mouth before shouting, “not make out with my sister!”

“No,” Kelso’s expression became serious as he turned his attention towards Eric, “I couldn’t, Eric.”

“You know what?” Eric threw his hands up and flailed them in exasperation. “I don’t even care anymore that you ruined Vanstock. What am I going to tell Donna? She’s going to ask me if I knew the whole time.”

Hyde rolled his eyes behind his aviators. He already knew how that turned out last time when Donna had stormed off, upset. “As entertaining as it would be to see you fuck this up further, Forman—just tell her the truth.”

“How is that  _ not _ going to screw me over?” Forman gestured wildly again. “She’s going to know that I’ve been keeping this from her.”

“Because if you lie it will end up biting you in the ass later.”

“Hyde is right, Eric.” Fez nodded in agreement. “Just take a look at Kelso. It’s biting him in the ass right now.”

“And you already lied earlier when you tried to get me to cover for you about Don Juan El Tardo and The Village Whore.”

“No!” Kelso jabbed his finger at Hyde’s direction and then Forman’s. “Eric, you can’t tell Donna. She’ll tell Jackie how long it’s been going on and then I won’t be able to get her back.”

The other three boys stared at Kelso like he had grown a second head. Fez was the first one to fling something at him, tossing as many magazines and comic books he could reach. Forman was irritated by the events of the day and needed an outlet. Hyde already knew how Kelso was, wasn’t surprised by his statement but it didn’t stop from irritating him and the anger boiled deep in his gut.

“I’m out of here.”

He was done with this crap for the day. It finally hit where the punishment was. Hyde was going to have to witness Kelso jerking Jackie around all over again━only this time, he was going to have to pay the price for feeling more than he wanted to for her.

_ This crap ain’t happening again. _ He slammed the door shut for his bedroom and flopped on his cot. This is why he didn’t do love.  _ Fuck the U.S. government. _

* * *

In a way, Jackie was grateful for the place in time she had been sent back to. She wouldn’t have to deal with anymore of Michael’s crap and she had less stuff of his to throw away.

“He really gave you a slinky for an anniversary?” Donna sat cross legged on Jackie’s bed, tossing it back and forth between her hands. “Kind of makes me appreciate Eric more.”

“Yeah, Michael’s a moron.” Jackie slipped the photo of Michael out from the frame on her bed and wrinkled her nose in thought. “You think Fez would want this?”

Donna’s face scrunched up in confusion and she shrugged. Jackie shrugged back and tossed it into the trash can by her desk. She wasn’t exactly sure when Fez became a little obsessed with her ex-boyfriend, but maybe this was before then if Donna didn’t understand the question.

“I’m really sorry about the Laurie thing,” Donna apologized for the second time since she had arrived at the Burkhart mansion. “I just found out before you showed up and was asking Eric about it.”

Jackie kept her gaze on the box of stuff she had collected from her year of dating Michael. She bit her lip to keep from smiling or making a comment, but she couldn’t help the warmth that spread in her chest.

Despite her friendship with the Donna of 1979, it sometimes felt like Donna sided with the boys over Jackie most of the time when they were younger. They had their moments though and Donna was like a less attractive, goofy older sister. It felt kind of nice to have her right now even if they weren’t as close as they would be some day.

“I wanted to tell you but once I saw you I blanked out a bit because...well,” Donna shrugged, hiking her shoulders up to her ears, “you’re kind of my friend and I didn’t want you to get hurt and for me to be the messenger that caused it.”

“Well, I deserved to know.” Jackie finally turned her gaze back to Donna and smiled slyly. “But you could always do something for me to make me feel better.”

Donna rolled her eyes in exasperation but she playfully shoved at Jackie’s shoulder. “Alright midget, what are you scheming at? And no, I’m not dumping Eric in solidarity or throwing out my clothes.”

“As great as those two options would totally be, that’s actually not what I was going to ask.”

Donna sat up straighter, her curiosity obvious. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion but nodded for Jackie to continue.

“I really meant what I said about not loving Michael and—“

“Jackie, you just told him you loved him three days ago.”

“Shh! Let me talk you big goon,” Jackie snapped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “Ignore that, that was the past and I’ve learned some stuff about myself, okay?”

“Okay. So what about not loving Kelso?”

“I don’t want him to bother me. I know he’s your friend and he’s been your friend longer than I have but can you be on my side about this? I really am over Michael Kelso and never want to be with him again.”

Donna stared impassively at her for a moment before nodding in understanding. “I’m guessing this means you’re asking me to run interference in case he tries to get you back like he did after the Pam Macy incident...incidents?”

Jackie nodded enthusiastically. “That’s exactly it. Look,” Jackie turned her whole body and sat cross legged on her bed, “Michael isn’t just cheating on me with Laurie but also some tramp from Sacred Heart and really that’s just what I know about.”

In reality, Jackie knew a lot more now thanks to Steven tricking Michael to reveal everything he had ever hidden from her.

“I know he’s a cheater but you don’t seem as upset as I expected you to be.” Donna raised a brow in confusion. “Like you sound a little angry but mostly resigned. I expected waterworks. Didn’t think you could get over stuff like this unless you found someone else.” Donna slapped her hands on the bed on either side of her hips. “Oh my god, Jackie! You already like someone else!”

“No,” Jackie lied, shaking her head and dragging out the vowel in the negation. Damn Donna always nailing it right on the head. 1976 Jackie didn’t love Steven and it would be weird if she suddenly had feelings for him. “I just realized that what hurts is my pride, not my heart. So, I don’t really love Michael.”

As much as the cheating hurt back in 1976, Jackie had recently felt pain that made the Michael cheating stuff feel like a mosquito bite in comparison.

She didn’t know when the timeline would spit her back to where she belonged, but the one thing she did know was that she wasn’t going to be spending her time in the past letting a boy she didn’t love touch her. And Jackie of 1976 might not know it yet, but she deserved better than to be with that doofus.

She found better. And she lost better.

Jackie blinked her eyes but the tears welling up in her eyes threatened to roll down her cheeks. She couldn’t be sad about that. Steven wasn’t her boyfriend in 1979 and he wasn’t her boyfriend in 1976. It didn’t matter how much she wanted him to be. 1979 Steven didn’t see a future with her and 1976 Steven didn’t see her at all—at least not as anything other than an annoyance.

Her parents were never around, she just broke up with the cheating boyfriend she didn’t even want, Steven wasn’t her friend yet, dorky Eric wasn’t really an option, and Fez was way too into her to be a real friend. The only thing she really had was her tentative friendship with Donna.

How did Donna end up being her lifeline?

“Could we still hang out?” Jackie sniffed. “I know I’m not with Michael anymore and well I’m not really part of the group…but I think of you as my friend too. My best friend. Despite the fact that you’re a lumberjack and all.”

Jackie was about to tell Donna that her eyes would get stuck if she kept rolling her eyes but was cut off by the feel of a slightly calloused hand taking hers into its grip. Donna offered her a small smile and nodded.

“Of course, midget.”

1976 and going into 1977 was going to be a rough school year for Donna. Donna invited her to live with her when she didn’t have a home and would in the future of this timeline. The least Jackie could do is save her lumberjack heart some heartbreak. Especially ones she may have had a hand in—there would be no Casey Kelso this time around.

Squeezing Donna’s hand, Jackie smiled to herself. It was only a day and she already had more than 1976 Jackie had. She had no idea why she was there or how but she did know one thing:

She needed to make a list.


	2. a new buddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie makes a new and unexpected friend and stuff aren't going the way Hyde thought they were

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a really early update but I’m so excited to share it with everyone.  
> I’m flaring up (I’m chronically ill) and wanted to do something to take my mind off of it.

School was going to be starting up in a few weeks and Hyde had only seen Jackie in passing since she broke up with Kelso.

He would be outside shooting hoops or doing some chores and he would catch her heading over to the Pinciotti household. It was just brief glances but it was more than he had expected.

Hyde of 1976 didn’t know it, but Jackie didn’t spend as much time in her own home because there was never anyone there to make sure she was home. Her mother was a lush and her father was always working—and getting into white collar crimes—and with only maids at home, young Jackie was left to her own devices.

She was a spoiled brat and no longer his problem but it didn’t stop him from thinking about her.

“I think I’m going to lose it,” Donna exclaimed as soon as she entered the basement through the outside door. “How many dresses does one girl need to try on for a stupid dinner party?”

“I’m guessing you just came back from the mall?” Hyde looked up from the television. He had just been debating sparking up on his own before Donna had entered. “Didn’t expect you of all people to hang out willingly with Jackie Burkhart.”

That was a lie. Despite the fact that Jackie had forced her way into their group with her association to Kelso, Jackie had always been the person Donna could talk to other than Hyde himself when it came to her Forman problems. And there was a limit to how much Donna could talk to Hyde about when it came to Forman.

“Well, I feel bad about the whole Kelso thing and if I can get her to stop insulting my height and my hair...Jackie could potentially be a lot better company than Kelso.” Donna plopped herself down on the couch and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Also she got me these hair clips that are really freaking cute.”

Hyde chuckled at that. Despite her demands for gifts, Jackie tended to buy things for those she latched onto. It was an unhealthy trait to buy affection but it was the only way she knew at this age because of her parents.

Donna chewed on her lower lip, the action catching Hyde’s attention. He narrowed his eyes at her and then smiled.

“Is that new lipgloss?” He teased.

“She took me to the makeup counter, okay?” Donna defended herself. She pouted, a wrinkle forming between her brows. After a moment of silence she spoke up again. “I oughta kick Kelso’s ass.”

“As fun as watching you beat his ass would be, what did he do this time?”

“I thought he was dressing better all last year because he had to because of his princess brat girlfriend, but it turns out that she was buying him those clothes so he could have nice things.” Donna sighed and slumped into the couch. “It makes sense considering he’s one of six kids, no way his allowance is enough for all of that crap. And with how much Jackie forks over when  _ we _ hang out, I can only imagine how much that cheating bastard was getting the whole time.”

Sitting up straighter, Hyde cocked his head in her direction and observed her through his shades. When it came to Jackie, usually none of them were that observant and Jackie hid too much from everyone due to her pride. Donna of 1976 wasn’t supposed to know this about Jackie at this point.

“She’s still a brat but it’s no wonder she expected him to get her stuff. It would have only been fair for him to return the favor.” Donna looked at Hyde then away. Her gaze drifted back to him and she sighed, her face falling into her hands.

“You have something to say to me?”

“Okay, listen.” Donna slid across the couch until her stomach was pressed against the arm closest to Hyde’s chair. “I need a favor and I think you’re best for this ‘cause, well, you get to burn Kelso.”

“...okay?” Hyde stood up and headed to the deep freeze. He pulled out a popsicle and pointed it at Donna. “I’m listening.”

Donna wrung her hands together and scrunched up her face in discomfort. She opened her mouth and then raised her hands defensively at him before dropping them and twisting her mouth. She opened her mouth and pointed a finger at him. She closed her mouth and shook her head.

“Just spit it out, man.”

Donna rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. She exhaled long and slow and then gave him a tight smile.

“Okay, so technically this favor is for Jackie...”

* * *

Cotillion classes were like riding a bike, all the lessons stuck—or at least they did for Jackie Burkhart. She carried herself with poise and smiled at the right moments even when all she wanted to do was scream.

It was one of the things that made hanging out in Eric Forman’s basement so liberating. Yes, at times she still employed proper etiquette—she wasn’t an urchin!—but it wasn’t something she  _ had _ to do.

Jackie had always loved dinner parties. She loved dressing up for them, the clinking of silverware as they were lifted, the shine of crystal underneath the lights. She adored the flush on cheeks and the chitchat and the beautiful invitations. It felt so adult, so grown up, something she wanted to be.

At her parents’ dinner parties, she didn’t speak much which was a shame considering how great a conversationalist she was. Jackie was the beautiful and polite daughter—an accessory. She enjoyed praise and attention, especially from her parents, but all the talk was around her or at her not  _ with _ her.

It was why she had wanted to host one so badly when she was last a sophomore. She wanted to sparkle amongst her friends in a mature setting. Of course at the time she had also been dating Michael and had wanted him to prove that he could show some maturity.

At least there was no chance of him burning her house down this time. No way in hell was she repeating that mistake.

“So you and Buddy go to the same school.” Mrs. Morgan directed her focus towards Jackie. “He’s in the grade above you.”

Buddy Morgan gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. The last time this dinner party was held, Jackie was so caught up in herself and her fantasies of Michael that she hadn’t given the older boy and his mother any thought.

Jackie knew that Mrs. Morgan was attempting to play matchmaker when she dragged Buddy with them to these parties.

He was a sweet boy, Buddy Morgan. Besides being rich and driving around in a cool car, he was loved by everyone because he was genuinely nice to everyone he met. Why he ever had a crush on Eric, Jackie would never understand.

It wasn’t until years later that Jackie found out that Buddy batted for the same team she did and Steven had told her about the Eric incident. Buddy Morgan had run away with a traveling salesman after a bad break up with some Fort Anderson football player during her sophomore year of high school. It had been a huge scandal but the longer Buddy stayed out of Point Place the sooner everyone forgot him, especially after Jackie’s father had been arrested the following year and became the major scandal.

Looking at his warm brown eyes and his dimples, Jackie thought it was a shame that he was interested in men but it was even more shameful that a boy as kind as him could be so easily forgotten by everyone.

“Yes!” Jackie nodded cheerfully. “Buddy was lab partners last year with a mutual friend of ours.”

There was a slight panic that crossed Buddy’s features before his face settled back into that pleasant but false smile. It looked nothing like the smiles he used at school.

“Well,” Mrs. Morgan flashed a smile at her, “it was nice to meet you Jacqueline. Looks like the Petersons are here.” She wrapped a hand around her son’s arm and attempted to lead him away in the direction of Kat Peterson and her parents.

Jackie didn’t remember Kat Peterson being at her house for a dinner party before the disaster that was her own. She had been so wrapped up in her own bubble she had forgotten that their parents were acquaintances.

Discomfort and jealousy rolled in Jackie’s stomach. In only a couple of weeks, the Steven of 1976 would begin an affair with Kat. Jackie had caught them leaving her garage an hour after all the unwanted guests had left, clothes rumpled. At the time, Jackie had been disgusted that Steven Hyde had fornicated in her home, especially while she was there and could hear it. She had been disturbed that Kat Peterson, the most popular girl in school would want to have sex with  _ Hyde  _ who wasn’t in the same social class as her.

A few weeks after that incident she was disgusted with Kat Peterson for a different reason altogether.

No matter how much he hid it, Steven Hyde was sweet and he didn’t deserve to be a dirty secret. Her Steven wasn’t for slumming and then kicking to the curb. He had deserved better than to be ignored by those girls in public.

It didn’t really matter to Jackie that Steven had been as he put it, “cool with it.”

And Buddy Morgan deserved more than to have his mother try to shove him in Kat Peterson’s direction.

“You have a Trans Am, right?” Jackie placed a hand on Buddy’s upper arm to slow down his mother’s retreat.

“Don’t get him started on that car.” Mrs. Morgan waved a hand dismissively. “I swear he likes cars more than girls.”

Both Jackie and Buddy tensed up. They caught each other’s eyes and Jackie looked away, laughing nervously.

“Well, some girls tend to love cars so he’s ahead of the game,” Jackie offered, winking and giving Mrs. Morgan the okay hand gesture. “Like Leslie Cannon!”

“Yeah, she calls me Trans Am,” Buddy muttered.

Jackie tried to stifle her giggles. Leslie was one of her fellow cheerleaders and she had a bad habit of only calling people, especially boys, by what kind of car they drove. When she had started dating Steven, Leslie didn’t recognize his name but recognized his El Camino.

How quickly she had forgotten him despite being yet another one of those flings for him.

_ I gotta stop thinking about that,  _ Jackie chastised herself.

“And I like cars too, they’re cool.” Jackie waved a hand towards Buddy to pull him back to the conversation. “Like, I really want a Mustang for my birthday, but Mr. Forman says their front ends are problematic so I should consider a Firebird.”

She had never gotten her Mustang for her upcoming birthday. By the time September of 1976 came to a close, her father had completely forgotten about getting her her own car. Jackie ended up borrowing his car when she needed a vehicle or relying on Michael and then later Steven to drive her around.

“Are you talking about Eric Forman’s dad?” Buddy raised his brow in interest. “You talked cars with him?”

“Uh-huh, he totally loves me.” Jackie pressed a hand over her heart and beamed. “I helped him work on the Vista Cruiser.”

She had also helped Mr. Forman on the Toyota and even the El Camino, but that wouldn’t be until later. It had first started with the feeling of being needed that she enjoyed. Jackie enjoyed being the one he called “not useless.” And then she realized what she enjoyed was that for a few hours, she had a father.

Sometimes she would pretend that it was her own dad with her in the garage. She would pretend that he was the one with his sleeves rolled up and grease ground into his forehead.

Jackie’s gaze shifted to where Jack Burkhart stood with Mr. Morgan and Mr. Peterson. A small smile twitched at her lips, quirking them up at the corners. It had been so long since she had seen him like this, confident and well dressed and free. Prison bars didn’t stop him from being her daddy.

Neither did daydreams.

She could pretend all she wanted, but her father would never hold a wrench nor would he ever risk staining his silk and suits. Of all things that shined, Jack would hand her beautiful pendants and white gold hoop earrings—never lug nuts that gleamed under fluorescent lighting. And for a long while that was okay with her. Jackie forced herself to be content with the feeling of velvet from jewelry boxes and not the warmth of a large hand brushing against hers.

Jackie rolled her eyes when her mother drifted into her line of vision. From across the room Pam Burkhart gestured to her daughter to smile wide and show her perfectly straight and proportionate pearly white teeth. Subtly, she reminded Jackie to stand up straighter.

_Teeth and cleavage_ _Jackie_ , Pam mouthed at her.

Jackie was surprised her mother wasn’t buzzed enough yet to forget that she was in the room.

Turning her attention back to Buddy Morgan, Jackie realized on the most superficial level they were alike because they were both rich and lived in the same posh community. Looking more closely, Jackie realized they had something in common that translated differently.

In some form, their mothers were both disappointments. In less than two years, Jackie’s mother was going to abandon her—stay away from Point Place for almost a year. In a metaphorical sense, Buddy’s mother was abandoning her son without even stepping a foot away from him. All of her smothering and shoving in the way of eligible girls instead of seeing and accepting him was pushing him away.

Jackie may not have understood Buddy’s sexual orientation or wanted to know more than the basic intro notes to it, but there was at least the understanding that sometimes, parents weren’t what you wanted them to be like.

“So why a Trans Am?” Jackie took over the conversation giving Buddy her full attention. Maybe if she threw him a bone, feigned interest in him, his mother would back off for a night. “Did you pick a Firebird for the same reason Mr. Forman suggested it?”

“Honestly?” Buddy’s lips quirked up in a crooked smile. “It’s just the  _ coolest _ car. I had no idea about that front end problem.”

“By the way,” Jackie linked arms with him and turned him away from his mother, “I  _ love _ your shirt. It’s so nice when a man knows how to dress.”

“Um,” Buddy tensed in her hold but let himself be led away from the adults. “Listen, Jackie—“

“Don’t flatter yourself, I just needed an escape and you obviously needed one too.” No way was she going to let Buddy Morgan voice that she wasn’t his type. She was every man’s type. He just happened to not appreciate women or that she could be if he swung that way. “I don’t want to be here and neither do you, so let’s just not be here.”

“Well, okay then.” Buddy shot her a disgruntled look, when she tightened her grip on him. “Then where should we be?”

* * *

Hitting it by himself would have been preferred. Sometimes Hyde would look through the smoke at his friends and forget that he was back in 1976. But then Donna would walk in with her longer red hair and Fez would be scrawnier and without his forelocks blown back. The only one of his friends that still looked the same was Forman considering he hadn’t yet grown the single inch that would make him taller than Hyde. An inch that wouldn’t really make much of a difference when Hyde put his boots on.

Even the brief glimpses of Jackie were a mindfuck. She seemed even smaller than usual and the baby fat on her cheeks hadn’t melted off yet to reveal the angular features of a woman. Fifteen year old Jackie with her small pert nose and big doll eyes was still beautiful, but Hyde had spent so much time alongside her that one day she had just looked older. There had been no fanfare, it had just crept slowly up on him and just was.

One day her hips flared out more, her breasts filled his hands a little more heavily, and her voice had slightly dropped a pitch and was smoother.

It got him thinking about how eighteen year old Jackie had stood in front of him and demanded the future. Two years didn’t seem like much time, but now that he was looking at all of the minor details that didn’t exist yet in all of his friends and himself, the major details screamed much louder at him.

“How does it feel to finally be sixteen, Fez?” Forman asked as he stood to open the door in an attempt to air out the basement. The door swung open before he got a chance to reach it. “Hi-hello-Buddy-hi!”

“Well, that’s new,” Hyde muttered under his breath, leaning back in his seat.

Jackie stepped into the basement with Buddy Morgan in tow holding a cake box like it was the most natural thing in the world. Hyde barely registered Kelso’s indignant yelp as his ex walked in like she had every right to be there.

“We can totally smell what you guys are doing from the stairwell,” Jackie laughed. She plopped herself on the couch, making sure to pull the skirt of her brown and white peasant sleeved dress out from under her. She turned her body to look at Fez and beamed at him. “Happy birthday Fezzie!”

“You know when my birthday is?” Fez gasped, a hand pressed to his heart in awe.

“We brought you a cake.” Buddy placed the cake box on the spool table. “Well, we stole you a cake from the Burkharts’ dinner party.”

“Meh, they won’t miss it.” Jackie shrugged. “It’s chocolate by the way.”

“And this cake is just for Fez?” Fez asked, slowly edging the cake box closer to him.

“Well, I thought you would share it with━”

“You can’t just come in here!” Kelso interrupted Jackie, standing up quickly from his seat on the couch.

“Sure, she can!” Hyde smiled broadly and took the box away from Fez and ripped the tape closing it. “She brought us cake.”

“Look,” Jackie whipped out a package of candles from her purse,” I even got candles for you to blow out.”

“Jackie!” Kelso shrieked and tried to get her attention, but she just ignored him.

Clapping her hands together, Jackie leapt from the couch. “I’m going to go get Donna. Eric, get some plates and forks.”

Forman looked to the basement door from where she exited and back to everyone else and back. “What just happened!?”

Buddy chuckled at Forman’s antics and pointed over his shoulder toward the stairs that led to the kitchen. “Should I grab those plates? Jackie wasn’t kidding about you guys smelling really strongly and I’m sure if your parents are in the kitchen they’ll know right away.”

“Uh, noooo.” Kelso turned towards Buddy, his hands on his hips. “What you  _ should _ do is explain what you’re doing with Jackie!”

“Who cares?” Fez clapped his hands excitedly. “They brought cake!”

Buddy looked up at Kelso unimpressed and not a bit intimidated by the taller boy. “Yeah, I’m going to go get those plates.”

“Ugh!” Kelso shrieked as Buddy brushed by him and jogged up the stairs to the kitchen.

Hyde couldn’t help but smile to himself. Donna had asked him to help run interference when it came to Kelso acting like a jerk to Jackie after their break up, but had told her not to expect him to be active about it. Luckily for Donna, it was just way too easy to mess with Kelso.

“Looks like someone has been replaced already.” Hyde chuckled as he removed the cake from the box. Eric shot him a questioning look which Hyde returned with a look of his own that he would explain later. They both knew that nothing was going on between Buddy and Jackie.

“That’s just━that’s just━not true, Hyde!” Kelso stammered defensively.

“What’s not true?” Donna asked, entering the basement with her arm looped around Jackie’s arm.

Kelso ignored Donna and began interrogating Jackie. “Are you dating Buddy Morgan, Jackie?”

“Not that it’s any of your business who I date, but Buddy’s just a friend.” Jackie led Donna to the couch and sat on the side closest to Hyde’s chair and made sure Donna sat on her other side, close enough that Kelso couldn’t muscle his way in between them.

“Got the plates, forks, and a knife,” Buddy cheered, setting them down on the table and moved the mushroom ottoman closer to Jackie and taking a seat on it. Hyde bit down on his lower jaw to keep from making a comment.

“Is no one else weirded out by this?” Kelso continued to complain. “Jackie shouldn’t be allowed in the basement anymore.”

“Shut up, Kelso.” Donna rolled her eyes and placed the candles around the cake, making sure there was sixteen for Fez’s age and an extra candle for good luck. “Today’s about Fez, not about false injuries to your person.”

“Why is Kelso so mad?” Hyde heard Buddy whisper his question to Jackie.

“Oh, he’s just upset ‘cause I dumped his ass.” Jackie didn’t even bother to whisper. Whispering wasn’t something she cared about doing unless she felt it was absolutely important.

“Wait. You broke up with Kelso?” Buddy scrunched up his face in confusion but then he shrugged. “Smart move.”

“I know, right?” Jackie beamed, completely ignoring Kelso’s sounds of protest.

Hyde concentrated on lighting up the candles on the cake. The last time Fez had turned sixteen, there hadn’t been any cake and Jackie didn’t even know it was Fez’s birthday. And Buddy definitely wasn’t hanging around the basement with them. Buddy hadn’t even been friends with any of them after he stopped being Forman’s chemistry partner.

He had simply drifted away once Forman and Donna became official, barely greeting Forman in the halls up until the day he had run away from home. The rumors had been murky. He either ran away with an older boyfriend or was sent away. The details were lost once people stopped caring.

But none of that was important at the moment. 1976 was starting to completely change course from his timeline.

There just wasn’t enough weed to make any of it make sense.

“You guys have made my first birthday in Amedica so special,” Fez thanked them after blowing out his candles. “Now let’s eat cake.”

* * *

“And then he just slugged me on the arm,” Donna huffed.

“If you keep moving your head around your braid is going to come out all weird.”

Jackie had come over to the Pinciotti household to teach Donna how to style her hair in different ways to go along with her new hair clips. Donna needed a great start to the new school year and just looking good could help it really sparkle which was exactly what Jackie had told her.

“I’m having a dilemma here, Jackie. It would be really nice if you could listen.”

Jackie sighed and took out the braid she had been making that would wrap from the front of Donna’s hair to the back. Maybe she should just tell her to go blonde already. Nah.

“Eric’s just being an idiot, Donna.” Jackie truly believed he was. She had almost forgotten about the ‘I love cake’ incident until Donna brought it up. “You would think the boy would be grateful that someone like you loved someone like him and was willing to admit it. Not that I would ever love Eric, but I would have buried that so deep down, you would have to find those feelings in China.”

_ Hell, he should consider himself lucky that you were going to marry his small diamond buying, jilting at the altar bum. _

“Jackie.” God, she hated it when Donna had that scolding tone in her voice.

“Alright, alright.” Jackie smiled to herself when the braid finally came out properly. “Just, back off. Cool down the emotional heat. You’re probably just being more serious than he’s ready for right now. Girls do mature faster than boys. We kind of have to.”

Donna nodded, taking in Jackie’s advice. “You might be onto something.”

“Of course I am! Now let’s talk about feathering your hair. I think it could really work for you.”

“My head needs a break from all of this rearranging you’re doing to it. Let’s just head over to the basement and see what the guys are doing.”

The basement. Except for Fez’s birthday, Jackie had avoided going down there, opting to visit Donna at her house or inviting her over to the mansion.

Jackie had spent the first day back in 1976 calmly. She wrote down a list of events she remembered that were important and could change the course of history. She closed up her diary and went to sleep, confident that when she woke up she would be back in 1979 and depressed over Steven but pretending she wasn’t.

Her second day back in 1976 was the big blow up.

She woke up in the same underdeveloped body, her calendar reading the wrong year and her father’s newspaper that he wasn’t even around to read telling her events that had already happened.

Her room took a massive hit from Tornado Jackie that day. She had flipped over her chair and knocked over books and knick knacks from her shelves. Not even Fluffycakes had been safe. The poor stuffed unicorn’s head had been separated from its body and it wasn’t until Jackie calmed down that she realized that she had been the one that ripped it apart.

Every morning for a week and a half, Jackie woke up expecting it to be 1979 again. She would call up Donna to ask her what she was up to and if she was free they would hang out.

It was summer vacation and Donna hadn’t gotten her job at the radio station yet so it opened up more time for Jackie to hang out with her, but Jackie was wary of entering the basement.

Steven was living in the basement and he was still going to be living there for another month or so until he ran into Bud Hyde again. Hanging out in a large group like they had on Fez’s birthday made it much easier to deal with the fact that she couldn’t talk to him like she used to or touch him like she wanted to.

“Sure,” Jackie agreed to Donna’s request. “You can practice being aloof around Eric.” In reality she needed to be the one practicing for Steven.

Donna gave her a quizzical look and then smirked at her. “Since when does the cheerleader know the word  _ aloof _ ?”

“God, Donna. You should know by now how smart I am.”

* * *

It was day whatever and Kelso was still hung up on Jackie breaking up with him. It was getting to the point that Hyde wanted to get back to 1979 just to get away from Kelso’s crying.

“Kelso, man. You gotta stop this already.” Hyde scrunched up his nose in disgust. “You’re starting to reek.”

After Vanstock, Kelso had still been confident that Jackie would take him back. Fez’s birthday had made him change his tune when Buddy Morgan had come to the basement with her. Hyde expected stalking and harassment from Kelso’s end, not utter defeat until he had pointed out that Buddy was the kind of boyfriend Jackie’s parents would approve of and want for their daughter.

_ It’s really too bad that he’s gay _ , Hyde thought. It was that one thought that kept him from admitting he didn’t like the idea of Jackie and Buddy together either. Buddy had the grades, the money, the family. All things Hyde didn’t have in 1976.

He refused to think about how impressed this much more shallow version of his ex would probably be of W.B., his real father. As shallow as Jackie of 1979 could be, all she had wanted was Hyde to have a shot at a decent parent—to finally have something they both wanted.

“Yeah, Kelso,” Forman had raised his shirt collar over the bridge of his nose, “if you don’t shower you’re not welcome here. That’s a message from Red by the way, but we all agree with him.”

Kelso post-Jackie came in stages. First stage was denial. It was also the third stage after he reached stage two where he wallowed in his grief and either didn’t shower or ate his weight in pudding. The return of the denial stage had Kelso adamantly forgetting why it was that Jackie broke up with him and start to woo her and grovel like he deserved a second of her time.

The fourth stage was hooking up with whatever girl he had cheated on her with and flaunting them in front of her. He had done that with Pam Macy, Laurie, and Annette—although Annette was more like the ambassador for the beach trash he had hooked up with before he received Jackie’s break up letter. Any day now Hyde expected Kelso to announce that he was dating Laurie.

“Yes, what was it that Jackie said you smelled like?” Fez tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Oh yes, like a pack of wet dogs had rolled in a pig truck full of onions. A-burn!”

Hyde shuffled the deck of cards and nodded his head. It was a pretty good burn. “Nice.”

“When did Jackie tell you that?” Kelso asked, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

“She invited Donna and me for a tea party and we had some girl talk.”

All of the boys turned to look at Fez, gawking at him.

“What?” Fez looked back at them innocently. “I’m not a girl but I like the girl talk. And Jackie had recommendations for a hair treatment that was most satisfying. But none of you sons of bitches noticed how shiny Fez’s hair is!”

“You sure you’re not a girl, Fez?” Hyde scowled. At least some things never changed.

The timeline was getting all screwy and there was no one Hyde could really talk to. He finally went and got his job at the Fotohut and that had been worth it just to see Leo again. Hyde had missed him severely but talking to him about time travel was pointless. Leo would start to take him seriously only to jump off into a different topic.

Last time Jackie had caught Kelso with Laurie and broke up with him, she had latched onto Hyde. He had been anticipating that kind of behavior from her only for Jackie to have latched onto  _ Donna _ .

_ “It’s weird y’know.”  _ Donna had spoken to him once about Jackie when they were alone and she needed a break from her parents.  _ “She’s always making weird makeup and hair analogies, but she, like, gets it.” _

Hyde didn’t need Donna to tell him that. That had once been his privilege. Now he was stuck in 1976, knowing all that he did about Jackie that made her lovable and real and could only look without even being able to think about touching. In 1979, there was at least the chance of reconciliation.

But here he was in 1976, jealous of  _ Donna _ who got to talk to Jackie and realize how great she really was.

“So get this,” Donna bounded into the basement, excitement oozing off of her, “I went to pick up Jackie from practice and the El Dorado stalls. I’m ready to walk back to the school and call my dad or AAA and Jackie just pops the hood open and checks it out herself.”

“Was she wearing her uniform when she did it?” Hyde flashed her a lascivious grin. Forman nodded in intrigue, shrugging for her to continue.

Donna frowned instantly. “Okay, maybe the wrong group of people to mention this to.” She sat down on the couch by her boyfriend and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She was silent for a moment before perking right back up again. “But it was just so cool! It was the perfect example about how no matter what kind of woman, she could still do traditionally masculine activities and not need a man.”

“Yeah, Donna,” Hyde shook his head, “should have just left us with the image of Jackie recreating a layout.”

“You guys are disgusting.” Donna scowled at them. “But yeah, when I pointed that out Jackie said ‘eww! Donna, don’t you dare make me out to be one of your ugly feminist friends in public’ and it kind of ruined it all.”

“Okay, that sounds more like Jackie.” Forman nodded with a shiver.

“Where’s Jackie if you went to pick her up?” Kelso demanded. Donna shot him a look and it looked like she was contemplating shoving him over the top of the couch.

“After she discovered what was wrong and took care of it, Buddy drove by and he gave her a ride home since they live near each other.”

That was another unexpected blow. Hyde had joked the other week that Kelso was being replaced but in reality it was him that was being replaced according to the events of his original timeline.

Whatever government agent that was in charge of following his every move knew exactly what they were doing to mess with him. He kept expecting something to happen and it never turned out like it was supposed to from what he remembered.

At least it wasn’t freaking Chip that Jackie was spending time with, he told himself.

“Kelso, you smell like a dump truck.” Donna moved to the deep freeze to get as far away as possible from him. “I think we need a basement ban until you start acting human again and wash up.”

“It’s that or Red gets the hose.”

“ _ I’ll _ get the freaking hose.” Hyde was getting fed up with the woe-is-me act.

“What? No!” Kelso was by the door before Hyde could stand up from his chair. “Ugh, fine!”

Kelso stomped up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.

“I think we need to light some incense to mask the leftover Kelso funk,” Donna suggested.

“I wish we had some of that stuff from Jackie’s house,” Fez whined. “It always smells good in her room.”

“What were you doing in Jackie’s room?” That was an even weirder change for Hyde. Jackie had always thought Fez was too creepy to allow in her house even when she enjoyed it when he showered her with attention.

“Fez is better for clothes talk than I am apparently.” Donna rolled her eyes. “I just can’t fake interest enough.”

“Why would you want to?” Forman laughed. At least there was that, Forman still hating on Jackie. Ol’ reliable Forman was the only constant.

Fez made some sort of comment in defense of Jackie before excusing himself. Another constant that Hyde could rely on was Fez’s signature exit phrase.

“Hey,” Donna’s voice dropped so she could speak softly to Forman. “You might not believe it but Jackie is a pretty good friend. I can talk to her about a lot. She even called you sweet.”

“Now that I don’t believe!” Forman protested, holding his hands up defensively.

“She did,” Donna insisted. “She thinks it was sweet that you just held me all night. She called you a good boyfriend.”

Forman looked over at Hyde, waiting for his input or an insult but Hyde didn’t have the energy for that.

This was another change to the timeline, but Hyde was active in this one. He had made fun of Forman during breakfast about not making a move, but this time around he kept Donna’s sleepover a secret from their other friends instead of burning him in the circle.

When he was sixteen, it had been fun to mess with Forman about his and Donna’s lack of a sex life and while it still was, it wasn’t something he had much in common with Kelso anymore. He now saw the benefit of just sleeping next to someone you cared about.

Eighteen year old Hyde had created a space just for Jackie, one where she felt safe and could exist without any expectations. Sharing a bed with a girl became more than just somewhere to fool around. And somehow, Jackie in his cot made him feel safe as well. Her arms were thin and she was softer than anything he had ever known, but those weeks of sharing his space with her wasn’t just for her. It was for Hyde too.

He didn’t need music playing on the radio when he had the sound of Jackie’s soft breathing and the feel of her heartbeat against his fingers that were intertwined with hers.

“And you  _ are _ a good boyfriend.” Donna smiled sweetly at Forman before frowning. “And Kelso is a creep.”

“That’s not news,” Hyde muttered.

“I had to explain to Jackie what coercion is.” Donna crossed her arms in front of her chest but her face didn’t hide her discomfort. “I know you guys don’t give a crap about feminism, but that’s one of the reasons we women need it. God, the more I talk to Jackie the more I wanna kick Kelso’s ass.”

“You should do it,” Hyde told her, reaching for a magazine on the spool table. He still had time before he had to start heading over for his shift at the Fotohut. He was used to having his El Camino for transport so he had to do some adjusting when it came to travel times.

If everything continued as it was, Hyde wouldn’t be getting his El Camino from Leo for a couple more months. He was going to need his set of wheels again if he was going to be stuck in nineteen-freaking-seventy-six again.

He still couldn’t figure out why he was sent back to that particular date nor how. Nothing special had happened his last night in 1979. Hyde had watched Jackie walk down the driveway and out of sight. Then he went into his room and lit a joint and laid out on his cot under the twinkle lights he had expected Jackie to take back when they split.

His room had been dark save for those lights. They blinked at him through the hazy smoke while The Doors’  _ I Looked At You _ played over his record player’s speakers.

The fucking irony of the line “And we can’t turn back” just for him to have stepped a few years back into the past.

For all Hyde knew, he had fallen asleep after getting too comfortable under his goose down comforter with the joint still lit and had started a fire and now he was in some fucked up afterlife. Dead because he was trying to escape thoughts of Jackie while surrounded by the things she gave him to bring him comfort.

Hyde refused to acknowledge that there may have been some sort of correlation between his refusal to talk about the future and his trip back in time.

There was no way they could be related at all.

* * *

Wisconsin had the worst weather. Donna had once asked Jackie why they weren’t out in Mexico enjoying beautiful sunsets and fruity cocktails. It had been a joking afterthought when discussing Pam Burkhart’s return to Point Place, but really Jackie was surprised Donna had even been able to survive California.

A Wisconsin summer barely reached eighty degrees Fahrenheit and that usually only lasted for a few weeks before the thunderstorms dropped the temperature. Jackie would have expected Donna to have passed out from the heat as soon as she stepped foot on a California beach.

Jackie had always hated her home in August. In the Pinciotti house or the Forman house, the storms—rain or snow—made the homes feel like snow globes, scenes in perfect little bubbles. When thunder crashed over the roof of the Burkhart estate, Jackie felt exposed as if the walls had expanded and opened up to the universe.

The halls seemed longer, the rooms larger, and the house emptier than it usually was.

She used to have space in a cot, a larger body wrapped around hers. Her very own scene in a perfect little bubble. Steven would hold onto her with disproportionately large hands that she slid her tiny fingers into the grooves of. She missed the serenity of that, of how a military cot in a storage room could make her feel safer and more at home than a mansion.

But she didn’t have that right now. What she had was Donna in her full sized bed.

“The boys would freak if they knew we shared a bed during slumber parties,” Donna joked. “They’re such freaks!”

When Jackie was making her list, at first there were a lot of events she wanted to avoid or change for herself. It seemed like the most obvious course of action to try and fix up her own life.

But then Jackie remembered nights sharing a room with Donna when her mother was drinking away in Mexico. She remembered Donna holding her as she cried over Steven. Remembered how she was there for her when she was afraid that she was pregnant and like an older sister supported her getting birth control pills.

She remembered Donna who never cried, crying when Midge left her family and when Eric broke up with her over the promise ring. Jackie could still see Donna’s blotchy face when Casey Kelso broke up with her in front of everyone and she remembered how Donna held herself up in her room and refused to come out when Eric didn’t show up for their wedding.

So this time around Jackie let Eric do his role as Donna’s boyfriend, but she picked up the slack. Bob and Midge were constantly fighting and doing strange things in their house—stuff Donna had always wanted an escape from. Jackie used to use the basement and the Pinciotti residence as her escape, why not let Donna use her mansion as one.

_ “Your house is like one of those fancy B&Bs,” _ Donna told her after the first sleepover at her house.

“They think we have pillow fights in negligees.” Jackie shuddered. “Sometimes I wanna ruin the fantasy and tell them that all we do is watch the girly romance movies they hate and stuff our faces with junk food. But knowing them, they’d still find a way to dirty that up.”

Donna clutched one of Jackie’s flower shaped pillows to her stomach and flipped over onto her back. Quickly turning her head back to Jackie, Donna kept her gaze on her.

“What?” Jackie asked, getting irritated with the stares. “Your staring is creeping me out, you goon.”

“I, like, never see your parents, Jackie.” Jackie’s breath hitched as Donna turned her body so she faced her fully. “At first it was cool ‘cause it was quiet and God did I need that, but it’s been going on a while and sure your dad is a city councilman and a lawyer, but come on Jackie. Your mother is a real estate agent in Point Place, Wisconsin. No one moves to Point Place and there's no way those lucky to get the hell out are keeping her that busy.”

The red hair was a giveaway, but sometimes Jackie would forget that this wasn’t her Donna and that she wasn’t already privy to some of the bullshit of her life. She tried to censor herself but it was usually so hard to do, especially when it came to words and phrases she had only introduced to her vocabulary when she had started dating Steven.

Donna’s parents were fighting and one day her mother was going to leave, but Donna was going to still have the love of two parents. She would end up caught in the middle of their fights, but she didn’t know what it felt like to be completely abandoned by her parents. Even when they still lived within the same walls.

“I don’t really wanna talk about it, Donna.” Jackie snuggled deeper under her covers, pulling them up to her ear.

Under the glow of the lava lamp, Donna’s face was washed in pink, her green eyes dark in the poor lighting but still full of warmth and concern. They crinkled at the edges when she smiled softly and said, “Okay, midget. Just know you can come to me for whatever. Well, within reason. I’ll always lend an ear.”

Warmth burst in Jackie’s chest and she nodded timidly. It might not be Donna of 1979, but she was still Donna, her best friend.


	3. cracks in porcelain dolls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I got it in my brain that every chapter was going to be a different month's events. like you will all get a chapter and it will be an entire month in the lives of the characters. this means that it's highly likely that the chapters will be long.
> 
> I hope that that's okay.
> 
> when I wrote the first part especially Hyde's first parts of this chapter I had a song stuck in my head and I just had to play it over and over again while I finished up those sections. that song was Fooled Around and Fell In Love by Elvin Bishop, which is a song from the '70s so fitting lol
> 
> Also...it's very interesting moving everything around to try and make sense of the years. I hope I don't lose you guys when I bring stuff up in what seems like the wrong order because of the episodes. I just want everything to make sense in when compared to how an American school year is structured and everything. I also want to keep some events to their real dates. Like Star Wars came out in 1977 lol

_ September 1976 _

It was only the first day of school and Hyde was already ducked out back with the other smokers and burnouts, puffing out more smoke than a train and skipping class.

He had hoped the whole time travel bullshit would have been over with before he was forced to repeat his junior year of high school. Dropping out and working full-time would have been ideal, just so he wouldn’t have to deal with all of the idiots and stupid teachers. But dropping out wasn’t an option as long as he lived under Red Forman’s roof.

Hyde flipped open his zippo lighter and closed it and repeated the action. He should have been filing back inside with the other students before Coach Ferguson came out and busted him.

He let one of his legs fall flat, his right arm resting on the knee he had propped up and leaned his head back on the brick wall. His eyes remained closed even when the doors creaked open and the sound of heels clicked against the asphalt. Hyde didn’t open them until they stopped right in front of him.

If this had been his senior year, he would have assumed the wearer of the heels was Jackie. She would have found him outside and scolded him for not heading to class. He would pretend to fight back as she grabbed his arm and attempted to get him standing up again. Hyde would then snatch her books away from her and hold them in the hand opposite where she walked next to him so she could slide her hand down his wrist and into his palm, interlocking her fingers with his.

Hyde wasn’t a stranger to public displays of affection. Before Jackie there had been girls that he would make out with at parties or in the case of Jill, in the middle of the bowling alley. Most touching would be limited to arms slung over shoulders or lips molding and tongues folding together.

With Jackie, touches didn’t stop at feeling up. They continued out of the shadows and consisted of caresses and the act of hand holding that she found sacred.

_ “Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much.” Jackie took his hand in hers and kissed his palm. Her binder for English class laid forgotten on his cot. _ “ _ Which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.” _

_ Jackie held her tiny hand against his, a perfect contrast of skin tones and size and soft pads against slightly callused fingers. _

_ “Yeah…” Hyde had scratched his cheek in discomfort, not sure what to do with this kind of move. “You do know that play was a tragedy, right?” _

_ Rolling her eyes, Jackie dropped his hand. “You really kill anything romantic.” _

_ “No, this is cool, man.” Hyde flashed her a teasing smirk before sliding his fingers between the spaces of hers. It earned him a soft smile and Jackie squeezed his hand in hers. “Now what was that next line? Something about pilgrims having lips too?” _

_ Jackie had squealed in delight when he leaned her back into his cot, her binder falling onto the floor and laying there forgotten for the next couple hours. _

Hyde never thought he would end up with someone with perfect attendance and who did their homework on Saturdays. Fooling around was one thing, it was completely different to let a girl like that slide between the spaces of his ribs and make a home in the cage.

“Hello.” Speaking of fooling around. “You’re Steven Hyde, right?”

Hyde opened his eyes and was met with a very familiar blonde—Kat Peterson. Yet another rich girl with sweet, expensive perfume and soft hair and skin.

“Got a smoke I can bum off of you?” She batted her lashes, perfect teeth biting down on a pink lower lip.

“Yeah, sure.” Hyde stood up and tapped the bottom of his pack until a single cigarette slid out. He held it out to her and after she got her cigarette he stuffed the box into his denim jacket’s pocket and headed to class.

Another rich girl, sure. But not his rich girl.

* * *

Bored, Jackie filed her nails for something to do. Listening to conversations she already had in the past was starting to get irritating. Especially considering she was sitting with girls she was no longer friends with at age eighteen.

Although Jackie was in the varsity squad, she sat with members of the junior varsity during lunch block because a majority of them were in her grade. Eventually they would join her—or in Julie’s case, replace her as head cheerleader—up in varsity but for now she was higher in the ranks and she could get away with looking disinterested in their lives.

“So we should be getting invites to your Sweet Sixteen soon, right? Jackie?” Sharon asked, munching on a celery stick. She tossed her blonde curls over her shoulder and raised a perfectly plucked brow.

Jackie hadn’t been involved in any of the planning for her Sweet Sixteen. Normally she would have been all over the chance of making her party even better than it had once been, but thinking about her father’s future arrest had dampened her spirits.

How much of the money was from his own pocket and how much of it was from the city? It wasn’t something she had concerned herself with before because any use of the money in the past couldn’t be unspent and they had lost a lot of their assets like the ski cabin.

She let her mother take over all of the planning and insisted she was too busy to handle any of the prep herself. Jackie made sure to leave her the number of the guests that were to be invited with some minor changes from when she originally had her party.

“Yeah, you should,” Jackie answered, her attention no longer on her “friends” but on the boy leaving the cafeteria. “Excuse me. I have to take care of something.”

Without waiting for them or checking their reactions, Jackie grabbed her purse and rushed quickly out of the cafeteria after her new friend.

“Buddy!” She called after him to slow him down from going around the corner. “Where are you heading off to?”

Buddy tossed her a smile and waited for her catch up to him. Despite liking all of the same nerdy stuff that Eric liked, Jackie found it so much easier to be friends with Buddy Morgan. There wasn’t any of the sibling like banter she had with Eric. It was probably due to the fact that even though Buddy enjoyed comics and sci-fi, it didn’t dictate who he was.

That and he dressed much better so it was easier to stomach his presence.

“Newspaper club is supposed to have their first meeting after school today and I have to make sure to get the keys for the room.” Buddy rolled his eyes and sighed. “I should have gotten Mitch to do it, but I don’t really trust him with copies of keys. Or other stuff.”

“Yeah?” Jackie had met Mitch and she didn’t have any trouble believing Buddy having problems with him. Mitch was such a creep. She wasn’t sure who was worse, him or Lance Crawford. The former praised Donna but snuck into her room, and the latter stole her socks from her locker.

“He’s the reason Lizzie is the only one allowed to collect the short story entries. It’s that or Donna can’t submit anything.”

The both of them shared a look and cringed. Buddy may not have known the full extent of Mitch’s obsession with Donna, but Jackie did. If she had time that would be another thing that Jackie would have to take care of just for her friend’s safety and dignity.

“So, what’s up?” Buddy nudged her with his shoulder as they walked down the hall. “Needed a break from all of the attention?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come on, Jackie.” Buddy gave her a look worthy of one of Donna’s mothering states. “You know I’m talking about all of your new suitors.”

Jackie preened and tossed him a megawatt smile. “I think I deserve it, don’t you think?”

During a summer cheerleading practice Jackie announced that she had broken up with Michael—omitting that he had cheated on her from the reasons why—and the squad quickly spread the news to the football team and the gossip circled around to the rest of the school population.

It was only the first day back and she already had several boys offering to carry her books and walk her to class. It was nice knowing she still had it even when she didn’t want it. Back in the original 1976, Jackie had been too depressed and she had worn it like a bad outfit, which made her temporarily undesirable. It had taken Donna of all people to point out how terribly she had been treating herself by wearing mourning outfits and overeating.

“After what happened with Kelso?” Buddy paused, thinking it over before shrugging in agreement. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Exactly.” Jackie fluffed her hair and laughed lightly. “This is just what any girl needs after a breakup with a crappy boyfriend: validation that she’s still beautiful and could have any guy she wanted.

“You know most of those boneheads just want in your pants, right?” Buddy warned, not that Jackie needed him to. She nodded and waved a hand dismissively at him and he gave her a shy smile. “It must be nice to have options though.”

The two of them never really discussed Buddy’s sexuality. They both had sort of avoided the topic as it didn’t seem important. She knew Jackie of 1976 would have been grossed out, having learned everything she did about people from her dear daddy, but she wasn’t exactly that girl anymore. It was startling how much she had changed in only a couple of years.

Her chest tightened when she remembered that a lot of that change came from dating Steven.

“You’re rich, smart, sweet as can be,  _ and _ you have dimples,” Jackie told him matter-of-factly. “No one here is good enough for all of that. Well, except for me, but we already know—“

“Yup, we know,” Buddy cut her off with a nod. He whipped his head around to make sure the hallway was still empty.

“You won’t be in this small hick town forever.” Jackie gave him a reassuring smile and took her hand in his. “I’m sure once you get to college you’ll have a bunch of fabulous options. Better dressed and cosmopolitan options.”

“True.” Buddy shrugged, his mouth twisting into a frown. “It would still be nice to french someone.”

Jackie couldn’t help the peal of laughter that escaped her. He reminded her of when she had been single for that one Christmas and all she wanted was to make out with someone and for them to tell her that she was cute.

It was one of her many regrets about how her first date with Steven had turned out. Her feelings weren’t as strong as she had thought they were when things had become too real, but it was still the hottest kiss she had ever had up to that point and it wouldn’t have been so bad to carry on with that. It might have changed a lot of things if they had and she wouldn’t have wasted so much time on Michael.

But none of that mattered anymore. The feelings for Steven did come and they left her with nothing but heartache.

“So,” Buddy led her around a corner toward the main hall, “looks like your choices are jock, rich kid, different jock, another rich kid, a  _ rich _ jock, that one very optimistic hophead, and Larry Mosely.”

“Oh well, definitely Larry Mosely,” Jackie joked back, “he’s a combination of all social packs.”

* * *

Unsurprisingly the school day had been a drag. Hyde still had the same teachers he had in eleventh grade that he had the last time he was in eleventh grade and they all still had the same syllabi without any changes.

“Can you believe how much we have to read this year?” Eric whined, barely looking up from his literature list as they headed to the Vista Cruiser. “I knew it was too good to be true when they didn’t give us a summer reading assignment.”

“Yeah, man,” Hyde deadpanned. “Who knew that schoolwork would get more demanding as we moved up grades and they expected more of us.”

Eric just nodded, the sarcasm flying over his head. He continued to gripe about how the new school year was going to suck, but Hyde couldn’t even pretend to pay attention. He was completely focused on the girl sitting on the hood of the Vista Cruiser.

Jackie always talked about how she looked like a tiny porcelain doll next to Donna. It got on Donna’s nerves all of the time, but while she was statuesque and hot in the girl-next-door type of way, Jackie—with her soft dark curls and her fluttery dresses that showed off her lithe form in just the most perfect way—really did look like a doll. Like the kind women kept safe on their shelves and then passed them down as heirlooms.

She was wearing one of those off the shoulder and fluttery dresses now. It had that light material that swayed around her when she walked. It made her look sweet and demure.

It was typically an effect ruined when she opened her mouth.

“I’m just glad my best friend is an amazon,” he heard Jackie tell Buddy cheerfully. Hyde hadn’t even noticed him standing by the Cruiser. “It’s like having my own bodyguard.”

“I’m not too big, you’re way too small,” Donna grouched. After a beat her scowl melted into a goofy grin. “Did you see how far I threw Chip, though?”

“Chip.” Jackie pretended to gag. “His name is Christopher. Stupid rock band wannabe.”

Chip. Hyde’s fist tightened around his binder. Chip was an upperclassman that Jackie had become friends with that had only stuck around when he thought he had a chance to get in her pants. A punch to the face had ended the chase, but that was in a different timeline.

“Wait. Chip, that senior guy?” Eric asked as he sidled up near Donna. “His real name is Christopher?”

Donna scrunched up her face in confusion and slid off of the hood of his car. “ _ That _ was the most interesting part of what you heard?”

“Well, it’s a story about Jackie so...yeah, it was.”

“You laid him out?” Hyde chose to avoid any Jackie and Eric cattiness in favor of Donna. She nodded proudly and he had to return it with a nod of his own. “Nice.”

“He deserved it. He was being really—“

“Donna!” Jackie interrupted her. “It’s almost time for the newspaper club to meet. Weren’t you going to check it out with Buddy?”

Hyde pursed his lips and blocked out Eric’s put out expression and whining about Donna’s new plans. In 1976, Donna wrote short stories and submitted them to the school newspaper, but she had never joined the club. A lot was changing now that Jackie had made friends with Buddy Morgan. And Hyde wasn’t sure if he was okay with that.

“I gotta head to practice too.”

“Oh, here.” Buddy offered his hand to Jackie and she took it, giving him a grateful smile as he helped her off the hood of the Vista Cruiser.

“Why thank you, good sir.” Jackie giggled at the mock bow Buddy gave her when her feet touched the asphalt.

Back in his own time, before the disaster that was their break up, it was Hyde that assisted her when she was wearing a dress or a skirt. It was usually when she was sitting on the bed of his El Camino. She was so short and always wore something heeled. Helping her out started out as an excuse to take her hand in his and somehow along the way, the way they moved together became as natural as breathing. Excuses were no longer necessary, it was just the way they were.

And now she was becoming that way with someone else.

“Where are you going?” Kelso called after Jackie and Donna as he and Fez walked up to the Cruiser. He stomped his foot in frustration when Jackie brushed past him without acknowledging his question.

Jackie stood between Donna and Buddy and hooked her arms with theirs as they walked back into the school. The trio made an interesting group. Sure, Jackie and Buddy were both part of the upper crust, the rich kids, but Jackie was a cheerleader while Buddy was a better dressed Eric with a nicer haircut and cooler car. And then Donna being thrown into the mix made them stand out even more not only because she was the tallest of the three and had red hair, but because Donna and Jackie would never have hung out had it not been for Jackie ending up with Kelso.

Originally Hyde believed he was a step ahead of everything because he had knowledge of the future, but every time he thought he knew what was going to happen, he was thrown a curveball.

“She’s doing this on purpose to mess with me!” Kelso stomped his foot again, his gaze fixed on the direction Jackie left in.

“Here we go again,” Eric muttered as they loaded into his car.

Kelso’s complaints about Jackie weren’t a new experience for Hyde, but it had been so long since he had actually heard them, especially in the context of a romantic relationship.

“Kelso,” Hyde heard Fez speak up from behind him, “have you ever considered that Jackie just likes the attention and it has nothing to do with you? She hasn’t even talked about you.”

All of them turned to give Fez incredulous looks. It was getting a little weird for everyone how much Fez was becoming one of Jackie’s girlfriends. The two of them went shopping together often and she talked to him about girls and clothes and even hair. Hyde had expected it to be some sort of ploy of Fez’s to try and win Jackie over, but everyone assumed that at some point the two of them had some sort of discussion because Fez was no longer chasing after her and had settled for being her friend.

“She’s just trying to mask the pain,” Kelso insisted.

“No.” Fez shook his head and gave him a tight smile. “I don’t think there’s any pain to hide, my friend. It was kind of scary how little there was at first, but now it’s just funny.”

“Shut up, Fez.” Kelso crossed his arms in front of his chest and sulked, sinking into his seat. “I just don’t get what’s the big deal about Buddy Morgan. I might not have the car or the money, but I’m  _ much _ better looking than that kid.”

“I don’t know, Kelso.” Fez clucked his tongue. “Buddy has these kind eyes and when he talks to you, it’s like you’re the only one in the room. Makes you feel very special.”

Hyde scrunched up his nose in disgust. What he had said sounded almost exactly like something he had said about Kelso in 1978. “Fez, what the hell?”

“What?” Fez laughed nervously. “Come on! Eric knows what I mean, right Eric?”

“What!? No!” Forman whipped his head back to glare at Fez and then whipped it quickly back when he remembered he was driving. “How about no more talking? Let’s just listen to some tunes, okay?”

Forman turned the knob to raise the volume and sang along loudly to REO Speedwagon’s  _ Tonight _ . Hyde just looked out the passenger window, glad for the distraction from whatever was going on with Kelso and Fez.

* * *

Jackie glared at Buddy and Donna’s twin smug expressions. The three of them sat in silence at their lunch table as Jackie huffed to herself, much to her friends’ amusement.

“I’m admitting nothing!” Jackie finally snapped.

“I’ll give you my tater tots if you do,” Donna sang, taunting Jackie with her paper boat of tater tots.

Jackie rolled her eyes and quickly snatched a tot. “Don’t make me regret sitting with you. I really don’t want to go back to those pom pom waving bitches.”

Buddy patted her hand in a comforting manner, but his mouth was pressed in a tight line from trying to hold back a laugh.

“I must have fallen into some alternative universe.” Donna pressed a fist to her mouth, but a laugh escaped against it. “Jackie Burkhart isn’t enjoying the attention she’s getting.”

“Oh, no.” Jackie jabbed a finger in Donna’s direction. “It’s not the attention. Of course I’m going to be showered with a bunch of it, it’s to be expected. I mean come on, look at me. I just can’t take all of the matchmaking. I don’t need anyone’s help getting a date. If I wanted one, I would have one.”

Jackie turned her head and shot a glare at her usual lunch table. She had been doing so well sitting with her old crowd without any issues until she realized the various boys that kept coming to sit with them were invited by her fellow cheerleaders so that Jackie could pick one of them to be her new boyfriend.

“What’s going on here?”

Jackie turned back around and found Eric glaring at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and stole another one of Donna’s tater tots.

“Come on, Jackie,” Buddy flashed her a teasing grin, “you can’t live off of potatoes. Drink your milk and maybe you’ll grow another inch or two.”

“Shut up!” Jackie giggled and shoved him playfully.

“Since when does Jackie sit with us?”

Jackie tried not to flinch when Steven sat down on the chair on the other side of her across from Eric. She was grateful because it would create a buffer when Michael showed up for lunch, but his close proximity was overwhelming.

He was the boy she loved more than anything, but he also wasn’t. Either way, they both didn’t want her for forever.

It was so strange looking at sixteen year old Steven with eyes that loved him. He had always been attractive in his scruffy and rough type of way, but did she always find his longer curls sweet? She was so used to the way nineteen year old Steven filled out his clothes, she had forgotten there was a time his clothes hung off of his shoulders a bit instead of tightening up around his biceps. Jackie had to keep resisting the urge to hug the younger version of her ex-boyfriend and hold him close like she knew he needed even if he acted like he didn’t. Smothering  _ this _ Steven with love wouldn't have been welcomed.

Hell, she couldn’t even do that in her own time anymore.

Ignoring Eric’s question, Jackie pulled out the fancy invitations her mother had ordered for her birthday party and handed them out to those seated at the table. It was the perfect moment because Michael wasn’t around and she was still debating inviting him. Jackie didn’t want to lose him as a friend but she also didn’t want to encourage him pursuing her anymore. Twenty year old Michael was completely over her, but eighteen year old Michael was still convinced that the two of them were meant to be even when he continued sleeping with every skank in Point Place.

“What’s this?” Steven nudged the pink invitation with his finger. Unlike everyone else, he let his lay on the table top in front of him and didn’t pick it up.

“An invitation to my birthday party. You can’t get into the country club without one of those so don’t lose it.”

“Country club?” Buddy grimaced. “Jackie, please tell me you’re not having a debut. I thought you were having a party at your house.”

Jackie rubbed her temple and huffed in exasperation. “No. Trust me, it’s a regular Sweet Sixteen. I told my mom that if she tried to do any debutante stuff that I would chop my hair off.”

“She didn’t call your bluff?” Donna asked, bemused.

“She wouldn’t risk me going through with it.” Jackie pursed her lips thoughtfully. “But then again, if I did have a coming out party, you would have to wear a gown and that would be like the best birthday gift.”

“Not happening,” Donna snapped, wagging a finger at her threateningly. She glared at Jackie but a beat later it melted into a shit eating grin. “Wait, you’re a debutante?”

“Well, I could have my debut this year like mom wants, but daddy insists that I don’t debut until I’m at least eighteen.” Although that had never happened in her own timeline. Her father ended up in prison and then her mother was on a drinking tour of Mexico and so they both had missed her eighteenth birthday.

“Coming out?” Steven asked gruffly, gingerly picking up the invitation. “Coming out of what?”

“It’s a party upper class girls get to welcome them into society,” Buddy answered. “Typically it’s to show off their good breeding and marriageability.”

“It’s sexist is what it is!” Donna protested. “Men don’t have to do all of that and it’s treating women like they’re broodmares for auction.”

“Meh, most girls do it for the pretty dress and the party. It would be a ball celebrating  _ me _ , Donna.” Jackie snagged the rest of Donna’s tater tots and then waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, and then daddy cuts a check for any charity of my choosing.”

Jackie chewed slowly on a tot and realized that her friends never really asked why she used to take gift baskets to the less fortunate or do any sort of volunteer work. One of the things she had to do as a deb was community service. But then again, it had been one of those things she kept to herself especially when it became obvious that Jackie wouldn’t be a debutante.

“Back to the earlier topic of discussion—“

“What about it, Buddy?” Jackie interrupted him, sending him a look and a slight nod in Eric and Steven’s direction. Buddy shot her an unimpressed look and carried on.

“Like I was saying,” he slid his seat away from her when she kicked in his direction, “before you interrupted me. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be interested in Jake Bradley if he were asking about you, hm?”

“Why would Jake Bradley, varsity quarterback, be interested in Jackie?” Eric chuckled derisively. Jackie threw a tater tot at his face. The one thing she could always count on was Eric hating on her no matter what timeline. To think she had helped him so many times with Donna and was going to continue helping him as well.

He was lucky she loved Donna so much and no matter what Jackie said, Donna was going to always love Eric.

“Two words for you, Forman: hot and cheerleader,” Steven answered, picking at his food. “I mean, if you didn’t really know Jackie, you would at least acknowledge the aesthetic traits first.”

Jackie wasn’t sure who was more shocked by his answer, her or Eric. In the original 1976, Steven had said something similar after she had broken up with Michael and they had hung out at the mall. He had been comforting her at the time, but she would have never expected sixteen year old Steven to say it so casually.

“No, she’s not,” Eric scoffed.

“No, I have to agree with Hyde on this one.” Buddy shivered in mock disgust. “Didn’t think that would ever happen.”

“Watch it, Morgan,” Steven muttered darkly.

“But he has a point,” Buddy carried on. “You’re just not like other guys, Eric.”

Jackie heard Steven snicker next to her and she knew he was recalling Buddy’s crush on Eric so she elbowed him. He shot her a glare, but the heat she normally expected wasn’t there.

“Wait,” Eric’s brows furrowed down in confusion, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, Forman,” Steven smiled sarcastically, “that you’re a sweet and sensitive guy and not a jockstrap guided by his di—“

“That,” Buddy cut him off with a glare. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, Eric. You’re a good guy.”

“Anybody know where Kelso and Fez are?” Donna looked around, stretching her neck to look over tables full of kids. “Lunch is going to be over soon and—“

Donna was cut off by the sound of a loud whimper and then the shouts of people. Jackie turned around and saw Michael on the ground while students pelted him with scraps from their lunch.

“Are they calling him—?”

“Tater nuts!” Steven cheered. They all burst out laughing but Jackie cocked her head in confusion. Was Steven in the cafeteria the first time Michael slipped on potatoes and rammed into one of the cafeteria’s poles?

The incident with Michael in the cafeteria was supposed to align with the same period of time that Donna found her mother’s panties in the Vista Cruiser. Jackie peered at Eric from her peripheral. Why didn’t the idiot ever lock his car when he was home?

“Oh, I’m glad we stayed at school for lunch now,” Eric said between laughs.

“Yeah, that was good,” Steven choked out with difficulty due to his laughter. “Classic.”

“I feel kind of bad for him.” Her laughter had died down, but the smile stayed on Jackie’s face. “God, he’s just such a klutz.”

“He’s sleeping with Laurie Forman. His junk has been through worse,” Buddy muttered. Jackie tried to cover her giggles behind her hand but Donna burst into laughter.

“Good one, Buddy.” Eric’s eyebrows waggled when he laughed. It was another thing that Jackie could count on to always be the same besides his shaggy haircut. “I gotta get going. I have to grab my textbook before I head to Physics.”

_ And before you almost ruin the best thing that’ll ever happen to you just for stupid Shelly _ , Jackie inwardly berated him.

“I’ll come with you,” Donna gathered her stuff, “I have to grab my stuff before I head to English. Are you still coming over to do your homework at my place, Jackie?”

“Yeah, I’ll see if Leslie can drop me off after practice.”

“Whoa,” Buddy spoke up as the couple left, “you’re going to let Leslie drive you home? You trust her?”

“Oh, Leslie doesn’t drive,” Jackie assured him. “Leslie gets her boyfriend of the week to drop me off.”

It was kind of hilarious how everyone knew Leslie Cannon shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of a car except for Eric. If everything worked out the way Jackie hoped they would, Eric will never steal Mr. Forman’s beloved Corvette in order to get a date with Leslie.

“I could give you a ride,” Buddy offered. “And then I could drive you back home. That way you won’t have to deal with whatever Leslie picked up this month.”

“I think it’s a ‘69 Impala.” Jackie’s face scrunched in thought, trying to remember the face of the senior boy her fellow cheerleader was dating. “Good choice. I like muscle. Can’t remember who drives it though, just that he’s a senior.”

“I think you’re spending too much time with her if all you’re remembering is the car.”

“Oh, God.” Jackie’s eyes widened in horror. She clutched Buddy’s arm and pleaded with him. “I think you’re right. Buddy, you  _ have _ to give me a ride and make sure I limit my time with her.”

Buddy’s laughter was covered up with the sound of Steven clearing his throat and his chair scratching against the linoleum floor when he pushed it back to leave.

“I should have figured that you liked muscle cars. You like Mustangs, Firebirds, and Camaros.”

“And El Caminos,” Jackie muttered as she watched Steven make his way out of the cafeteria. She released the tension in her body that had been increasing ever since he sat down at the table.

In her own timeline she was months away from graduating and it had taken her a while to get used to not seeing Steven in the halls. The first month of school she expected to see him outside of some of her classes, waiting for her and for her playful scolding because he would only have been able to wait for her if he was missing one of his own. Senior year was a little lonely without him and she couldn’t pass stairwells and their favorite empty classrooms without missing him and urging the final bell to ring.

Their break up had made it all worse. There was no chance of him picking her up for lunch and there was nothing to look forward to at the end of the day except for escaping the dirty looks she received from the cheerleading squad.

Buddy was a good distraction. The old Jackie had only acknowledged his parents’ bank account and his status, but spending time with him now Jackie could see why seventh grade Donna would develop a crush on him.

Even without the issue of which team he batted for, Buddy Morgan wasn’t the type of guy she went for—despite what people thought of her love for money. Just like with Eric, there was a sense of trust she had with Buddy that she was sure came from the fact that he wasn’t chasing after her skirt when he talked to her.

It was the kind of safe feeling she got from Steven before they had started dating. She craved that connection, but knew nothing good could come from being around Steven. She loved him too much and even if the Steven of 1976 didn’t know it, Jackie had been there already, she tried it, and ultimately lost that battle in the war of love.

Why start something all over again if Jackie already knew the end result? Steven was never going to love her the way she loved him.

* * *

Jackie sighed and drummed her fingers on her stomach. She stared up at the popcorn ceiling as if it would make the decision for her.

“ABBA over The Captain and Tenille, you monster.”

She could feel Buddy shaking from his laughter. The both of them were in his room, lying on his bed in opposite directions but with their heads next to each other in the middle.

“Okay, okay.” Jackie chewed on her lip as she thought of her question. “Got it. Zeppelin or your Trans Am?”

“That’s not fair at all!” Buddy protested. “I made you choose between two groups you love not between one of the greatest bands of all time and a personal prized possession.”

“So? Who said anything about fair?”

“Fine. I choose Led Zeppelin.” Buddy narrowed his eyes at her in a mock glare. “My dad can buy me another car.”

At that Jackie burst into a peal of laughter that had her curling up. Buddy joined her in laughter and almost rolled off of his bed.

“In all seriousness,” Buddy cleared his throat as he settled back down, “did you see my dad’s face when I said we were going up to my room? We keep this up and he’ll probably buy me my own house when I go away to college.”

It was Saturday and Jackie was tired of hanging around her house. Buddy’s home was closer than the Pinciotti’s and she could walk over easily. Luckily for her, Buddy used the weekends as a break from his school friends and was free to hang out.

“Isn’t it weird,” Buddy’s voice lowered to a whisper, “how the more money they have, the more bigoted adults are?”

Jackie sighed and wrung her hands. She knew he meant his own parents and how they celebrated his blossoming friendship with Jackie in the hopes it meant he was interested in girls, but she couldn’t help but think about her own parents.

When she had broken up with Steven in 1979, Pam Burkhart had simply shrugged and asked her what did she expect from a boy like him. Jackie was too shocked over the callousness to argue with her mother and demand she explain what she meant. She knew what her mother was getting at, but she wanted to hear her say it out loud and yet she also didn’t.

She knew exactly how that argument would go. Jackie, even through her tears, would argue about how her mother didn’t know Steven and that he was perfect. And then Pam would throw it back in her face that if he was so perfect why did they break up and list all of the faults she saw in him.

And that was still better than what Jack Burkhart had to say about Steven.

“Let’s change the game up,” Jackie suggested, not liking the gloom hanging over the both of them. “What do you notice first about a guy? Eyes or lips?”

“What?” Buddy sat up looking at her incredulously. “Why would you ask that?”

Jackie sat up to be level with him and crossed her legs, tucking her feet under her bottom. “Come on, Buddy. There’s no way you’ve never wanted to have boy talk with a friend before. I’ll even go first. Eyes.”

Buddy stared at her warily but after a beat he sighed in resignation and said, “Eyes.”

Jackie clapped her hands excitedly. If only Donna were around to join them. And if she was able to convince her to play.

“Do you have a favorite eye color?”

“I don’t know.” Buddy laid back down with an arm behind his head. “I used to think I liked green, but brown is pretty nice.”

“I know what you mean.” Jackie nodded and then pointed at her own. “Brown is just really warm right? There’s just so much depth to brown eyes.”

Buddy chuckled and shook his head. “How about you? Other than your own eyes, what color do you like?”

Steven was never far from her thoughts and dictated her response. “Blue.”

“Huh. No hesitation there.” Buddy patted the spot next to him and Jackie laid back down. “Alright. Choose one: hair or hands?”

1976 Jackie would have said hair. And while she still found a great head of hair to be important, the former fifteen year old Jackie hadn’t had the privilege of observing and being touched by Steven’s hands. When sixteen year old Jackie had developed her obsessive crush on Steven, one of the first things she noticed was how large they were, almost too large for his body.

At first it had been an odd fascination with how they shouldn’t have made sense but somehow did when she looked at Steven as a whole. She liked watching the way his fingers flexed and the bones underneath his skin danced when he drummed his fingers.

“Hands,” she answered softly remembering the way Steven held onto the Vista Cruiser and curled his fingers into his pocket the last time she saw him in 1979.

She still wondered how things would have gone if she had taken him up on his offer for a ride. The both of them were so stubborn they probably would have driven in silence in one of the most awkward car rides ever.

“Why do you find it so hard to just pick a guy and go on a date?” Buddy interrupted their game. “It might make life a little easier with the pep squad.”

“Because if I give in to them now, they’ll think they can run my life and no one tells Jackie Burkhart what to do with her life.”

“They kind of suck, don’t they?” Buddy shifted in place, making himself more comfortable. “What are we supposed to be doing right now if we hung out with who we were supposed to?”

“Party at Courtney Smith’s because her parents are out of town. I’d be huddled with the other cheerleaders and we’d be sneering at all the drunk idiots that think they can talk to us and you would be walking around pretending to drink as much as the other guys, but really you would be nursing the same beer all night so you wouldn’t get sloppy in front of everyone.”

Jackie flipped on her side so she could look directly at him. She knew what she said next would make him uncomfortable.

“And you would talk to everyone so everyone knew you were there, but you wouldn’t stick around any group for long because you don’t form attachments to those in your peer group so that they only know as little about you as you want them to know.”

“Huh. That was grim and accurate.” Buddy exhaled through his nose and turned his face towards her. “You wanna see what Donna’s up to?”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

* * *

Having already hung out in the basement for years, Jackie knew to expect the guys to be doing just about anything in there. Which is why she wasn’t shocked to find Steven, Michael, and Fez lounging and watching Charlie’s Angels intently as the Angels were running in slow motion, their heads following the movements of the running.

She liked the show, but it was obviously not for the same reason the boys did.

“They’re only able to watch this when Donna isn’t here,” she explained to Buddy as they reached the bottom of the stairs that led from the kitchen.

The three boys turned at the sound of her voice. Steven and Fez greeted her but Michael scrambled from his seat on the couch, almost falling over the back of it to stand next to her.

“Jackie.” Michael crossed his arms in front of his chest and attempted to appear indifferent to her presence in the basement. “So you might have heard that I’m dating Laurie now.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Jackie rolled her eyes and moved around the couch and pulled the stool with the rainbow cushion and moved it so that it was between Steven’s chair and the couch, away from the lawn chair Michael usually used. She gestured to the couch and Buddy took a seat by Fez. “Where’s Donna and Eric?”

“Eric ran over Donna’s cat last night so he’s over at her house trying to break the news,” Fez explained before letting out a groan and clutching his right side. “The cheesy puffs have turned against me.”

“Oh my God.” Buddy looked at all of the occupants of the basement, horrified. “He killed her cat?”

“Five bucks he makes it all worse,” Jackie responded.

“Too easy,” Steven scoffed. “We know he’s going to screw it up. That’s what Forman does.”

“You guys are betting on this?” Buddy’s eyes widened even more.

“We bet on sure things here,” Steven explained. Jackie nodded and patted Buddy on the knee.

Fez groaned again and fell over onto Buddy. “My stomach. Why must the cheesy goodness betray me?” He pressed his face into Buddy’s leather jacket in discomfort and sniffed. “Oh, Buddy you smell good. What cologne is that?”

“Fez, man. Don’t smell our guests,” Steven scolded, scowling in distaste.

Before Fez could defend his actions, Eric stormed into the basement carrying a gray kitten. He took a seat on the lawn chair and everyone waited for him to explain what had happened with Donna.

“Donna’s mad at me.” Eric nodded and then looked down at his lap. “And I took the kitten with me. I was supposed to leave it there.”

Fez groaned again, even louder, clutching his right side.

“Fez? Is it only your right side that’s hurting?” Buddy rubbed Fez’s back to soothe him.

“Yes? Why?”

“Crap.” Steven sat up straight. “It could be that your appendix is about to burst. I’m calling the Erdmans.”

“I have to go back to the Pinciottis and hand the kitten over.” Eric stood up, careful not to drop the little cat. “I’ll meet you guys at the Vista Cruiser.”

“Hang on Fez!” Michael bent down and scooped Fez up, carrying him out the basement and up the steps towards the driveway.”

“See?” Jackie grabbed her purse. “Much more exciting than a party, right?”

* * *

Hyde watched as Jackie tucked Fez into his blankets and Buddy plumped his pillows. It was strange watching them disrupt past events simply by existing in a space they hadn’t been before.

“He’s really rolling.” Buddy grinned at the dopey look on Fez’s face from the painkillers.

“You smell like a dream,” Fez told him, his eyes narrowing in bliss. He turned to Jackie and his smile spread even wider. “You  _ look _ like a dream.”

“What are we? Chopped liver?” Kelso complained. “I carried him to the car.”

“You also dropped him.” Forman rolled his eyes but giggled at Fez’s blissed out expression.

“Poor Fezzie.” Jackie rubbed his arm soothingly. “Your best friend is a doofus. I’m going to grab you something from the gift shop.”

“Can you get me chocolate?” Fez pleaded. Jackie shook her head but gave him a reassuring smile before she left the room.

The four of them sat in awkward silence as Fez babbled to himself. Forman looked around the room for something to entertain himself with while Kelso shot daggers at Buddy. Hyde crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back in his seat, propping his feet on Fez’s bed.

“Guys, I don’t want them to cut me open.” Fez shook his head, eyes getting wide with sadness.

“It’s alright, man.” Hyde patted his leg. “You’ll end up with a cool scar. Tell people it’s from a knife fight, chicks will dig it.”

“You called his host parents, right?” Buddy asked, taking a seat on the other side of Fez’s bed.

“They didn’t pick up so they might be at church. I’ll try again in an━”

“Hey  _ Buddy _ ,” Kelso seethed, cutting Hyde off. “Maybe you should head home now. I’m sure Fez just wants his friends here.”

“He is my friend,” Fez mumbled quietly, picking up Buddy’s arm and sniffing his jacket. Buddy just let him mess with his arm with an amused expression on his face.

“What’s your problem with me?” Buddy asked, not taking his eyes off of Fez and how he zipped and unzipped the zipper on his sleeve. “What did I do that warrants you acting like a jerk?”

“He’s just jealous that you’ve been hanging out with Jackie.” Forman shrugged and grabbed the chart at the end of Fez’s bed for something to do. “Why have you been hanging out with Jackie?”

“I am not jealous!” Kelso sputtered, almost falling off of his seat as he sat up straighter.

Hyde rolled his eyes and hoped Jackie got back soon and that she brought snacks with her. If it was anything like the last time they had brought Fez to the hospital they would be hanging out a long time before Mrs. Forman kicked them out.

“Sure you’re not.” Hyde was getting really sick of Kelso’s attitude. Reliving the Kelso-Jackie affair a second time around made Kelso’s actions even more deplorable and it sickened him to think that Jackie was likely to take him back again in a few months. “I’ll tell you now though, you try and attack Buddy in the hospital and I won’t wait for security to handle you. I’ll take care of you myself, man. Don’t make me stick up for the rich boy, Kelso.”

“Hyde!” Kelso gasped. “You’re supposed to be  _ my _ friend.”

“Will you get over it?” Forman snapped. “Our friend is in the hospital and all you care about is who the girl you cheated on━yeah, remember that? You cheated?━is hanging out with.”

Silence followed Forman’s outburst. Hyde counted in his head waiting for the eventual━

“What am I going to do about Donna?” There it was. “She’s so mad at me.”

“Of course she’s mad at you.” Jackie stormed in with a paper bag. She pulled out a teddy bear and handed it to Fez who immediately dropped Buddy’s arm in favor of the plush toy. She tossed Hyde a bag of Reese’s Pieces and offered Buddy some Twizzlers. “You  _ lied _ to her. You just need to talk to her and explain that you didn’t want to hurt her, but that you screwed up because you’re a moron and just apologize again.”

“Why didn’t I get candy?” Forman asked, looking back and forth between Hyde and Buddy.

“You killed my best friend’s cat,” Jackie deadpanned, pulling out a magazine she had bought for herself from the bag.

“Well, why didn’t I get candy?” Kelso asked glumly, pouting and turning teary eyes at Jackie. Hyde reached over and slammed his fist against his upper arm. “Ow! Hyde, what was that for!?”

“Because you’re a tool,” Buddy answered flatly, reading over Jackie’s shoulder. “You couldn’t get a Motor Trend?”

Jackie dug into the paper bag and pulled out another magazine. “Don’t crease the pages. I’m taking that home with me.”

Buddy looked at the paper bag and pulled out a Rolling Stone. “And this is for…?”

“Oh. Steven.” Jackie gestured to him, looking in his direction for only a second before dropping her gaze back to her Cosmo.

Hyde took the magazine from Buddy and flipped a page. He was halfway down a page when he finally realized what Jackie had called him. Jackie was the only one of the group in his original timeline that called him and everyone else by their first name, but Jackie had called him Hyde up until she had started her infatuation with him.

With the way things were going at the moment, Buddy seemed more likely to be the target of her affections than Hyde was. If all of this really was a government simulation, than he could only assume this was another thing used to fuck with his mind. Jackie had even gotten him Reese’s Pieces and he doubted fifteen year old Jackie had known that he liked peanut butter. Hell, if this was a simulation meant to torture him than Jackie should have brought him something with caramel.

Forman continued to glare at Jackie until she looked up from her magazine. “What? Does the Twizzler want a Twizzler?”

“Twizzler?” Buddy asked. “I’m probably as skinny as Eric is. Am I a Twizzler?”

“No. You have shoulders and Eric is a stringbean.”

“Again,” Forman raised his voice over Jackie’s, “why are you hanging out with her, Buddy?”

Buddy opened his mouth to answer but Kelso spoke up and cut him off. “Isn’t it obvious, Eric? He’s trying to be Jackie’s new boyfriend.”

Hyde couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped him. God, he forgot that Kelso wouldn’t know for a long time that Buddy was gay. He cleared his throat and went back to his magazine when Jackie shot him a glare.

“No he’s not, Michael.” Jackie threw him a dirty look. “Guys and girls can be just friends.”

“Yeah, but Buddy is nice and cool and you’re,” Forman gestured all over her, “the devil.”

“Jackie can be nice,” Buddy argued. “And I like hanging out with her. We have quite a bit in common.”

“Jackie isn’t nice.”

Buddy chewed on his bottom lip and looked at Forman like he was looking at him for the first time. Hyde couldn’t come to Jackie’s defense; it wouldn’t be something he would have done except when it came to sneakily helping her find out about crap with Kelso.

“Eric, she just gave you advice about Donna like ten minutes ago.” Buddy’s voice was soft but firm. “And she wanted to come hang out with you guys at your house instead of going to Courtney Smith’s party.”

“Huh. Jackie gave up a party full of booze and a bunch of popular kids to hang out with us in a dark and dirty basement.” Hyde nodded his head and pursed his lips. “Forman, you may be right. Jackie is totally lame if she chose you over a party.”

“Technically I chose Donna, but unfortunately Eric’s social life revolves around his girlfriend so they come as a package deal.”

“Well, I’m sure Buddy chose me over the party, right?” Everyone turned their attention to Buddy who was slowly sliding down his seat. “Buddy?”

“I was hanging out at my house with Jackie when I suggested we find out what Donna was doing tonight.”

“Ha!” Jackie laughed in Forman’s face.

“Hey guys,” Fez spoke directly to them for the first time in a while. “I’m not wearing anything under my gown. See?”

“No!” They all shouted. Buddy was quick to react and covered Jackie’s eyes.

“Okay.” Forman swallowed deeply and fixed Fez’s blankets around him. “I think it’s time to go home.”

“I think I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” Jackie mumbled into Buddy’s shoulder as he rubbed her back comfortingly.

* * *

Sixty-seven days in the past and Jackie hadn’t attempted to harm her mother physically, but that was likely to change and Jackie was only sixteen for the second time all of one day.

She stormed down the stairs and found her mother sitting at the breakfast nook sipping tea and pouring over papers. Without even waiting for her mother to acknowledge her presence, Jackie threw the garment bag she had been carrying on the table.

“That’s  _ not _ the dress I picked out for myself.”

“Good afternoon to you too, Jacqueline.” Pam flashed her an amused smile and continued drinking her tea and reading her documents. “How was school?”

“Focus, mother.” Jackie unzipped the garment bag and pulled out the horrible high collar long sleeved red dress with obnoxious frills her mother had picked out for her. It was designer, she recognized the label, but it wasn’t  _ her _ dress. “What happened to the dress I ordered? My party is  _ tonight  _ and my dress is missing.”

“Oh, isn’t this shade of red darling.” Pam ignored Jackie’s question and fingered the fabric of the dress. “And this dress will really help hide your lack of figure.”

Jackie clutched at her chest and the scream that bubbled up her throat came out in a squeak. This was supposed to be a second chance with her mother and it wasn’t going well at all. Pam stood from her seat and towered over her. It was one of the things Jackie hated first about her own body: her height.

She didn’t have the model height her mother had. When she was younger and it became apparent that she would be petite forever she turned it into a strength. Her size was perfect for ballet, it was perfect for cheer. She was tiny and cute—she was a doll.

Pam took the dress out of Jackie’s hands and pressed it against her body and cooed at the frilly design of the silk dress. “You’re going to look darling, sweetie.” Her mother pressed the dress tighter and frowned. “Too bad we don’t have enough time to get some inserts sewn in.”

Jackie glared at her mother’s fuller chest. She was given her mother’s dark, sparkling eyes, the perfect brows, and pouty lips. If Fireman Dean was to be believed, they even shared the same laugh. Jackie didn’t have awkward phases, she was a blooming beauty—only getting better with age, but her mother really knew how to take her down a peg.

It didn’t matter how many people told Jackie she was beautiful—the prettiest girl in the room—as long as she remembered where it all came from.

“I know you’re itty bitty right now, but gosh you just know you’re going to always look amazing if you luck out and get all of my great genes.”

_ She’s thirty-eight and competing with a sixteen year old,  _ Jackie reminded herself.  _ There’s nothing wrong with  _ you _. She’s thirty-eight and competing with a sixteen year old. _

“I can’t do this.” Jackie backed away from her mother. “I’m going over to Buddy’s house.”

Her mother’s eyes flashed with a predatory gleam when she mentioned Buddy’s name. Pam always got excited when Buddy Morgan was involved.

“Are you two dating yet?” Pam called after her as Jackie rushed to make her escape. “Oooh, let him drive you to your party, Jackie. I have to head over early and check on some last minute things.”

She should have known better than to assume that her mother would come back for her if there was another option that got Pam out of it. Groaning, Jackie yanked the front door open and shouted back, “He’s just a friend, mom!”

Jackie knew that it was one of the consequences of being such public friends with Buddy Morgan, but she really needed to drill it in her mother’s brain that there would be nothing between her and Buddy besides friendship. She didn’t need her mother looking at her friend with dollar signs floating in her eyes.

She loved her mother, she really did, even with all of Pam’s faults. But sometimes she wished her mother made it easier to love her.

Maybe then it wouldn’t hurt so much that Jackie loved Pam more than her mother loved her back.

* * *

Hyde scowled at the patronizing smile the country club staff gave him and his friends. The snooty man in his uptight uniform looked over their invitations and rolled his eyes before directing them to the ballroom. Forman had received the same sort of smile from the valet when he had given them the keys to the Vista Cruiser.

Normally Hyde wouldn’t have been caught dead anywhere near the Point Place Country Club unless it was to trash it. The only reason he had dressed up and joined his friends was because he still felt some residual guilt from promising Jackie he would go to the LoPP’s Christmas party. He figured he owed her one even if she didn’t know it. That and to make sure Kelso didn’t ruin Jackie’s birthday party by being himself. Donna had even frisked him to make sure he had no fireworks.

“Wait until you guys see Jackie’s mom.” Kelso nodded to himself with a sleazy grin.

Hyde crossed his arms in front of his chest to keep from hitting Kelso. Donna had already taken over the role of protective friend and had yanked on Kelso’s ear and warned him that she would be kicking his ass if he ruined Jackie’s Sweet Sixteen.

“She lives for this kind of stuff.” Donna smiled at the grandeur of the country club and laughed. “I bet she’s even wearing a tiara.”

Hyde had no idea what to expect of Jackie’s birthday party this time around. Her Sweet Sixteen in the original 1976 was held at the Burkharts’ mansion and Jackie had indeed worn a tiara and a sweet pink tea dress with a belt that tied into a bow at the side. When they had been dating back in his timeline, Jackie had drilled into his head the details of all of her outfits for events when she explained what she was looking for so she didn’t repeat any of them. He could recall them all even if he didn’t want to.

He hadn’t even been invited to her original Sweet Sixteen, but it didn’t stop him from attending anyway just to see if Kelso burned her house down again.

“I hope Jackie likes the present I got her.” Fez clutched the big wrapped box he brought with him to his chest before setting it on the table with the rest of Jackie’s presents.

“If it’s shiny she will,” Hyde muttered, slipping the small rectangular box he had hidden in his suit jacket on the table between the larger boxes. He didn’t put his name on the gift box, still feeling embarrassed from having bought the gift he had. It was something she could use, no way he was giving her something that wasn’t practical, but it was still something he didn’t want anyone knowing he spent money on.

“Or pink,” Donna joked, setting down her and Forman’s joint gift for Jackie.

The ballroom reminded him a bit of every high school dance he had attended. Strings of lights and glittery decor hung from wherever possible and it looked like Pam Burkhart had invited every student that attended Point Place High School.

“Do all of these kids even know Jackie?” Forman asked, eyes wide as he looked around the ballroom.

Hyde rolled his eyes at his best friend’s ignorance. Jackie was going to be runner up for Snow Queen two years in a row and then Homecoming Queen her senior year. Underclassmen were never likely to win one of the Snow Prom titles and as a sophomore Jackie still came pretty close and the only reason she hadn’t won Snow Prom Queen her senior year was because she was no longer a cheerleader at that point.

If they gave titles out for the Underclass Prom, he was sure Jackie would have tried to win that as well. Not that she would have been a candidate in 1976 thanks to her moron ex-boyfriend.

“There go some of her cousins!” Kelso pointed towards a group of girls laughing and gesturing to their dresses. “I’m going to reintroduce myself. Her cousin Carla was totally checking me out last time I saw her.”

Before anyone could stop him, Kelso took off. Whatever he did with one of Jackie’s cousins would likely end up killing his chances of getting back together with her which was fine with Hyde. If he had to watch Jackie date someone else, it would be better if it wasn’t Kelso.

“Well,” Forman wrapped his arm around Donna’s waist, “looks like we lost Kelso.”

“Yeah, who cares.” Donna was craning her neck to look over all of the kids. “Where’s Jackie? Kind of weird that we haven’t seen her yet considering it’s her party.”

Donna wrung her hands in the skirt of her peasant dress and looked around nervously. She and Forman headed off in one direction while Hyde followed Fez as they looked for the birthday girl. After fifteen minutes of searching they met up by one of the punch tables, neither of them having found her.

“Anyone else worried that we haven’t even  _ heard _ Jackie?” Forman asked. “That can’t be a good sign.”

“Oh my God, you’re right.” Donna’s eyes widened and she bit the inside of her cheek.

It was at that moment that Buddy Morgan had found them. He looked about as stressed as Donna did. Hyde just knew Buddy couldn’t have anything good to say.

Looking around first to check if anyone was listening, Buddy gestured for them all to come closer and he whispered, “Jackie’s missing.”

“What do you mean Jackie is missing?” Hyde demanded. They were at a large party dedicated to Jackie, that should have been enough to keep her around. “How do you lose a ninety-five pound, loud as hell cheerleader at her own party?”

“I asked the front hall staff if they saw her leave and they said no, but Jackie isn’t here.” Buddy became defensive at Hyde’s confrontation. “I haven’t seen her since the party started, which you’re all late for by the way.”

“We had some issues with Kelso,” Donna explained. Buddy just nodded as if that was all the explanation he needed. “What about her parents? Jackie’s mom or dad should be trying to find her too, right?”

Hyde’s fingers clutched at his jacket’s sleeves. It was easier to hold back from throwing something when he kept his arms crossed. He didn’t need to hear Buddy’s response to know that Jack Burkhart wasn’t at his only daughter’s birthday party.

“So we should be expecting Jackie to make a scene soon, huh?” Donna’s brows furrowed in a deep frown, her forehead creasing. Hyde could practically hear Jackie scolding her about wrinkles. Too bad she wasn’t actually present to do it.

“Ai,” Fez whined. “I hope she waits until after the cake.”

Hyde looked at the younger versions of his friends and realized that they wouldn’t know Jackie’s usual MO, not even Buddy Morgan if he was concerned about a scene just as much as Donna was. If she was missing it meant that she had been “stomp and cry” levels of upset. They wouldn’t be getting a scene until she was able to process all of her hurt in private and lick her wounds where people couldn’t see her.

“Let’s split up and look for her,” Buddy suggested. “Mrs. Burkhart is... _ indisposed _ at the moment and I’m sure she hasn’t realized that Jackie isn’t around.”

“Just say she’s wasted, man.” Hyde wasn’t even surprised that Pam Burkhart was drunk. Despite being the youngest mother of the basement gang, there was no doubt she was mourning her youth now that her daughter was old enough to drive.

“Why do we have to look for her?” Donna elbowed Forman in his ribs. “What? I just meant that she has other friends.”

“You really think Jackie wants the pep squad to possibly find her crying?” Hyde scowled and stormed off, not waiting for the others to decide what they were going to do. He didn’t need to be subject to their stares to know how confused they would be.

He didn’t need another reminder that he was back in 1976.

His friends wouldn’t expect him to understand Jackie. They expected him to find amusement in Jackie’s problems, not try to help her. They all seemed to forget about him taking her to Prom as soon as she hooked back up with Kelso and in this timeline that was only a few months ago.

All except Donna. She had made fun of him for a week after Prom, but eventually told him she was proud that he had done something nice for Jackie. Donna said it helped her a bit with seeing him as the Hyde she knew and grew up with and not the Hyde of a few months before Prom that made her uncomfortable.

_ Come on, doll. Where are you? _

The country club’s staff kept eyeing him as he searched the different amenities they offered. It wasn’t until he was glared at by the tenth employee that he realized that Jackie could never find peace with all of these people around, asking if help was needed. Jackie would rather die before letting “the help” see her so low.

It was the end of September and the cold of Autumn always came in strong and fast. If Jackie wanted some privacy there was only one place she could get it without leaving the grounds.

* * *

Considering there were about a hundred or so teenagers in attendance, Hyde expected some fancy ass place like a country club to have better security. Or at least someone around to make sure that no one was entering the restricted areas like the closed pool.

His boots clomped and scratched against the concrete that surrounded the tarp covered pool. If Jackie wanted to hide from him, she would have been warned of his approach as soon as he stepped out into the cool night.

The deck was clear of any lawn chairs and the area was empty except for one dark figure huddled by the iron bar fencing that acted as a barrier between the pool and the club exclusive golf course.

“There’s like a hundred people looking for you.”

Jackie didn’t even turn to acknowledge him. She kept her arms wrapped around her knees, her heels laid discarded on the ground next to her. “No there isn’t.”

“No there isn’t,” Hyde admitted, taking a seat three feet away from her. Now that his eyes had adjusted properly to the dark he could see Jackie better.

Someone━and he was pretty damn sure he knew who━had dressed Jackie in the worst material to wear in the cold. She looked like she was drowning in silk, the only parts of her skin that were exposed were her face and hands and the light fabric pooled around her giving the impression that she had melted into a puddle. It was definitely not the dress she had worn at her original Sweet Sixteen. With her loose curls and all of the frills down the front of her dress and the voluminous skirt, Jackie looked even more like she belonged on an old lady’s shelf. 

At least she still had her freaking tiara.

Hyde shrugged off his suit jacket and handed it over to her. “Here. You’re shakin’ like a leaf.”

Without hesitation, Jackie took his jacket and slipped into it. “Thanks.”

He watched as Jackie curled inward into herself and soaked up the heat he had trapped in his jacket from his body. She was sniffling, not even minding that he could hear her. But that’s how it usually was with her crying. Unless he was the one making her cry, Hyde was one of exceptions about who could see her in those moments.

Warily, he scooted closer to her and as soon as he was close enough to touch her, Jackie was practically in his lap, her arms thrown around his neck. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and sobbed softly, his skin turning wet from her tears and the way her lips barely brushed against him as she trembled in his hold.

It took her getting hurt, but here was a Jackie thing from his 1976 finally revealing itself. It didn’t matter that they technically weren’t friends, Jackie always came to him when she needed comfort.

_“Why did you always come to me?”_ _Hyde asked her once when they were alone in his room, the smoke wafting over their heads as they laid in his cot._ _“Of all people why me?”_

 _“I don’t know.”_ _She shrugged her shoulders, unable to keep from jostling him in the confined space._ _“You just always felt safe. Like you were doing it for_ me _and not to get anything out of it. You weren’t going to rub my back to feel for my bra or expect me to do something for you. It’s like I kept telling you. You’re just the sweetest, coolest guy.”_

_ “Whatever,” Hyde grumbled, attempting to turn over so his back was to her. _

_ “Yeah, yeah whatever,” Jackie giggled, impeding his actions by crawling over him so she straddled his waist. She pressed a kiss on his lips. “Sweet.” Another on the indent of his cleft chin. “Sweet.” And then a kiss to the hollow of his throat. “So sweet,” she murmured, dragging her open mouthed kisses down his chest. _

Stroking her hair and pushing it behind her ear, Hyde sighed against the top of her head. “Jackie, what’s wrong?”

Jackie pulled away, licking her lips and eyes fathomless in the dark of the night. She braced her hands on his shoulders and scanned his face for something he didn’t know. He kept his expression blank, unsure of how open he wanted to be with her.

“This isn’t my dress,” she whispered.

“...okay?”

“It’s expensive and it’s silk but it’s not my dress and she knew it,” Jackie continued.

Hyde scratched his cheek with his thumb, waiting for Jackie to reveal the real problem. She was deflecting and he knew it. Jackie was shallow but if the dress was what upset her it wouldn’t have seen the light of day. She would have tossed it aside and gotten a new one.

But if she wasn’t going to talk, hhe wasn’t going to force her to. He wasn’t going to analyze sixteen year old Jackie’s words and try to figure out what her dress was hiding.

“Since it seems that you don’t wanna attend your own party...wanna do something else?”

Jackie’s eyebrows pulled down into a frown, a confused pout on her little face. “Like what?”

“Check the pockets.” Hyde nodded at his jacket that she wore. Jackie slipped a hand into the pocket with his pack of cigarettes and pulled it out. He took it from her and opened it up, pulling out a pre-rolled joint.

Jackie’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You want to do that with  _ me _ ? Wait.” Jackie pursed her lips, but her eyes gleamed with mirth. “You brought part of your stash to my Sweet Sixteen? Where did you plan on smoking that here?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Hyde grinned at her. He was pretty confident that he would be able to find a closet or somewhere where he could spark up without getting into trouble. And even if he did and got kicked out, it wasn’t like he would be coming back any time in the future. Burnouts weren’t welcomed at country clubs and this burnout only showed up because of one princess in particular.

He took the first pull, his lungs being more accustomed to the smoke than Jackie’s baby lungs. In his 1976 he didn’t welcome Jackie to The Circle until he taught her how to set up her own walls against Laurie, but this Jackie clearly needed it and why not celebrate turning sixteen with her first hit?

“Water usually helps,” he told her as she coughed, almost hacking out a lung. “Second or third hit will be better. First one always sucks.”

“Yeah, water would be good right now.” Jackie’s voice was all raspy from coughing. “Or a popsicle.”

“So,” Hyde drawled, exhaling smoke with his words, “usually there are rules for The Circle, but, well, this isn’t really a circle. It’s more like a line”

“A diameter.” Jackie nodded her head, giggling. “We’re two points on the circle and we’re on the line cutting it in half and it’s the diameter and that’s what we are. I’m in Geometry this year.” She cackled, throwing her head back, her curls bouncing around her shoulders. “I don’t know why that was funny.”

“Cheerleader is sensitive to this stuff,” Hyde chuckled, taking a longer pull. He already knew exactly how sensitive she was the first time she smoked and didn’t want her so high that she ended up embarrassing herself in front of everyone.

“Yeah, I kind of am.” Jackie giggled, covering her mouth with her hands through Hyde’s jacket sleeves. “Wonder how my mom would like it if I was at my party high. Can’t be any worse than how she’s acting.”

“Yeah, uh, Buddy said she was indisposed.” Hyde laughed louder than he normally would. Buddy was so fucking proper sometimes. Jackie was like that sometimes too. It was probably a rich kid thing. Had to be good in public for mommy and daddy. It kind of reminded him of Mrs. Forman and how she would tell people that drunks were just “feeling unwell.”

“Screw that, she’s wasted!” Jackie threw her arms up and rolled her eyes. “And screwing a guy that’s not daddy.”

The laughter instantly died in Hyde’s throat. “What?”

“Yup.” Jackie nodded, her lower lip trembling. “She’s here at my party having an affair where all of my friends and classmates can catch her.” She covered her face with his jacket’s sleeves and her whole body shook from her sobs. “I-I’m sorry. I know there’s no crying in The Circle and━”

“Fuck that,” Hyde snapped. He pinched the lit end of the joint between his thumb and index finger and set it aside. He pulled Jackie into his lap and wrapped his arms around her, not caring if it was more intimate than sixteen year old Jackie and Hyde would ever be.

It didn’t matter if it was more than 1976 Hyde would ever give her. That his sixteen year old self would have held her loosely, more loosely than she deserved, even if he did something as soft as stroke her hair. And if this is all a government simulation made to torment him, then someone is doing a damn good job. Because tears from a Kelso induced heartbreak would have been too easy to fix. Just a few easy words of how everything would be fine to stop the flow of leaking tears.

But this wasn’t a little leak. This was a crack, one of many, and it was going to take layers upon layers of enamel to fix this porcelain doll.

“This isn’t even the first time,” Jackie whispered, tucking herself under his chin. “Why is it so hard to think of me first?”

_ “I don’t know” _ was on the tip of Hyde’s tongue. He coughed to mask the way the words got stuck and he cleared his throat. Those were the three words that got him into trouble with the Jackie of 1979.

He had been thinking of them as separate entities, this Jackie and that Jackie. It made it so much easier to put them in boxes and shove them away and pretend he wasn’t thinking about his Jackie when he was looking at the Jackie of 1976. But  _ this _ Jackie was everything  _ his _ Jackie came from.

And the truth was that neither Jackie was actually his.

It would be so easy to just live out this simulation without any of the bullshit that was his relationship drama with Jackie. Just redo all of those years without a spoiled little princess trying to yank on his heartstrings as if he were a marionette that she could bend to her way because she always had to have her way.

It would just be  _ so _ easy to punish sixteen year old Jackie for the hurt eighteen year old Jackie had caused him. Just let her deal with whatever Pamela Burkhart dished out at her again and again. Just let her suffer for giving Pam all of the chances in the world with her love while he just got kicked to the curb when he wouldn’t give her what she wants.

_ Marriage _ , Hyde scoffed to himself. Why would anyone chase it after years of watching neglectful parents in a loveless marriage? A legal document, a piece of fucking paper, didn’t bring them happiness so why did Jackie want it so much?

Why wasn’t  _ he _ enough?

“Thank you, Steven.” Jackie pulled away just enough so she could look him in the eyes. There was so much sorrow and hurt swimming on the surface and that’s when Hyde remembered why none of that would be easy.

Because she wasn’t his, but fuck it he was hers. She could pal around with Buddy Morgan all she wanted and become closer to Donna and even Fez, but this was theirs. None of them knew this heartache like they did. They were just two kids deprived of love and while he was used to kicking it like a bad habit, Jackie was still starving for it.

“How about I go grab Donna and the other losers and we figure out how hard it is to get into this golf course?” Hyde tilted his chin up, nodding in the direction of the dark and empty hills of the manicured lawn. “And maybe have a real circle, not that diameter shit?”

He helped her up and she dusted off her dress making herself look as pristine as usual. Jackie may have had her cracks but she was used to layering her special brand of enamel, as if looking just perfect enough could hide all the hurt and all of the bullshit that was her life.

“And miss my party?” Jackie gave him a playful glare, only offset by her watery smile.

“Come on, Jackie.” He matched her mock glare before beaming at her. “As if Fez would let us miss the cake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! I hope you enjoyed the chapter.  
> just a few things to address: I know Mila Kunis has heterochromia but Jackie has said in canon that her eyes are brown so that's what I left it as. And there's so much love for blue eyes so Hyde's are always addressed and adored so here's to the beauty of brown eyes.


	4. beauty in the breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think it’s cute that you two are friends.” Donna used a cutesy voice and waved her hands around, dancing in her seat. “ABBA meets Zeppelin. What a horrifying concept.”
> 
> “You just said we were cute.”
> 
> “Doesn’t stop it from being creepy and unnatural.” Donna mock shivered in disgust, but the smile stayed on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hewwo! I have notes at the end of the chapter that are really long but I think some of them are pretty cool if you're interested in reading them after you're done reading. Heck, I have notes in the beginning that are hecka long too.
> 
> please bear with me as I try to squish the events in a way that makes sense. I even have to rearrange them and that may seem odd to some but it's just the way it's gonna have to be.
> 
> two things that kind of bugged me was the whole class picture episode (besides the retcons!!!) and advanced copy of the yearbook Jackie got because it made no sense when they happened in the fictional school year even if they had a "year round" school that started in August (which I assumed Lady of Perpetual Sorrow did because Donna was told school started while the kids seemed to still be in the middle of summer vacation) instead of after Labor Day. Yearbooks come out towards the end of the year (so why was it happening before Veterans Day...?) and class pictures get taken in the beginning of the year typically not towards the end? But none of the episodes make sense anyway considering they jump all around to different parts of the year....and Veterans Day was in November but they were having a bbq and everyone was dressed like it wasn't cold as hell in the Midwest in November.
> 
> I also took some liberties with the location of Point Place. It was supposed to be a suburb of Green Bay or something but that made no sense because the kids visited Kenosha when they needed more urban getaways and they were supposedly 2 hours away from Chicago which makes sense if they lived closer to Kenosha than Green Bay. It also makes the college trips to UW and Marquette more believable because of the distance and Donna saying that she realized how long the ride back was and how far away she was going to be from Eric.  
> With Kenosha being about 45 minutes away from Milwuakee that drive isn't that bad in context of W.B. living there and the drive to a town near Kenosha and back. If you live in a big state and don't live in the city the drive is pretty realistic for when you make plans to do stuff or go to work.  
> I'm also using the comment Hyde made about Jackie and him going to Six Flags as an important landmark because Six Flags is only like a half hour from Kenosha. I'm from the DMV area and we have a Six Flags and a Kings Dominion and the KD is like 2 hours away but the Six Flags was only like a half hour drive and that's easily a date destination.
> 
> For time adjustments I'm sticking the Pinciotti's second wedding during the time that Kelso and Jackie were broken up after she caught him with Laurie but during the time he was trying to be friends with her. The struggles of 3 years of events being squished into one year. That and I don't care for any JK "development" considering he was cheating on her and I don't care for their so called cute moments or relationship moments when that stuff was happening.
> 
> A modern song that I played toward the end of writing this chapter was "High Definition" by Waterparks and it just felt like the right mood for Jackie and Hyde for this fic.  
> This chapter is even longer than the last. I hope you enjoy it.

_October 1976_

Jackie worried her lip as she watched Donna purposely write down incorrect answers on her homework assignment. She had noticed her doing that a lot lately and she was sure Donna would have failing marks in her Interim Report Card.

The both of them were having problems at home and had decided to camp out in Eric’s basement to do their schoolwork every day. Donna’s parents were constantly fighting and Jackie’s were never home. Jack had become busy with work again and Pam had taken off on a cruise for the week of her birthday.

Neither one of Jackie’s parents even bothered to check to make sure she was following the restrictions they placed on her after she and her friends were caught by the Point Place Country Club’s security trespassing on the golf course. What was the point of grounding your kid if you didn’t even bother to follow through on it?

“You know,” Jackie spoke up, tapping Donna’s binder with her new unicorn pen. She had been using the pen almost anytime she had to write something ever since she found it among her birthday presents. “I could help you with your Spanish homework.”

When Jackie was working on her Donna part of her list, one of the things that stood out to her was how the older girl had destructive tendencies when it came to dealing with her problems. It was one thing to change up your hair or charge a bunch of new outfits on your parents credit card, but to sabotage your future?

She already worked on getting Donna into more extracurriculars that weren't just JV Wrestling, she would be damned if the lumberjack ruined her transcript with failing marks in her junior year.

Donna paused in her writing and narrowed her eyes at Jackie. “You don’t even take Spanish. You take French.”

“But I _know_ Spanish, Donna.” Jackie gave her a pointed stare. “I was practically raised by our maids and cooks. I even had a penpal from Nicaragua before Hurricane Fifi.”

Hell, it was one of the reasons her mother wanted her to move back in with her after she broke up with Bob Pinciotti.

Donna’s jaw dropped in confusion but she was saved from replying when the door to the basement swung open. Buddy stomped towards the girls, with Fez following behind him looking guilty.

“Jackie, I’m going to need you to check the Trans Am.” Buddy shot a glare in Fez’s direction. “I’m pretty sure someone messed up the transmission when I was teaching him to drive.”

“You busted the Trans Am?” Donna shouted at Fez. Jackie fought to keep the horrified look on her face. The corners of her lips twitched upward, threatening to form a smile at the memory of Donna going gaga over Casey Kelso’s Trans Am. Jackie was sure she liked the car more than she liked Casey.

“See, this is why I told you to borrow the Vista Cruiser,” Jackie reprimanded the two boys. “Or even better, Michael’s death trap of a van.”

Now that both Fez and Jackie were eligible for their licenses, Fez needed to practice for his driver’s test. Jackie already knew how to drive due to being from the future but also because she had the habit of “borrowing” her father’s Lincoln Continental when her parents were out of town, and she was doing so when all she had was a driver’s permit. She justified doing it back in the original 1976 by reminding herself that she had only driven it to Steven’s old house before handing off the keys to a licensed driver so it wasn’t that bad.

When Steven found out months later what had happened, the pride that momentarily flashed across his face made something flutter in her stomach.

“Let me see if Mr. Forman is free.” Jackie closed her binder and tucked her pen into the hole the rings created. She clapped her hands together in excitement and did a little dance. “Oh my God. I get to work on a Trans Am. This should be fun!”

* * *

Working at the Fotohut was the same as it always was. It was strange already feeling an attachment to Leo who was still getting to know him. Fortunately, Leo had such an easy going attitude that their relationship easily became exactly what it was before he took off in 1978.

Leo was what he was enjoying the most about being back in the past. He had missed the old guy more than he was willing to admit.

“Oh, Buddy’s here,” Forman announced as they drove past the driveway. Until Leo gave Hyde his El Camino, he was stuck walking or bumming rides off of Forman, Kelso, and—for the switch up in this timeline—Buddy Morgan.

Being a friend to Jackie endeared him more to Buddy and vice versa. Buddy obviously still thought he was a jerk, but he was more amicable with him than with Kelso. Buddy didn’t even try to hide his disdain for Kelso much to Hyde’s amusement. He was such a good kid and nice to everyone, even Hyde despite his rudeness, that it was interesting seeing Buddy not like someone.

They parked the Cruiser on the street in the space behind the Pinciotti’s backyard and walked up to the house not expecting to find Red and Jackie under the hood of the Trans Am.

“So the clutch is dragging?” Red asked Jackie who nodded enthusiastically.

“I think so. Buddy said that it felt awkward when he pressed on the clutch pedal and changing gears is near impossible now. There’s also this disgusting grinding sound.”

“Why did he let Alibaba drive this car?”

“Buddy offered to teach Fez how to drive and because Fez was interested in learning stick, the Trans Am was the only option,” Jackie explained, stretching on her toes. The action caused her bottom to perk up more than it already was in her tight jeans. It was a combination of good genes and keeping fit for cheer that gave Jackie a tight backside and staring at it was one action Hyde couldn’t blame on his feelings for Jackie of 1979.

Hyde of 1976 may have found Jackie annoying and abrasive, but he was still a teenage boy and as long as Jackie shut up he could appreciate parts of her. She just never stayed that way long. Sixteen year old Hyde would probably flip out over how much nineteen year old Hyde missed Jackie’s talking.

He was broken out of his reverie by a slap on his shoulder and a glare from Donna. “Real subtle.”

“What?” Forman finally noticed what Hyde had been staring at and his face contorted in disgust. “Ewww!”

“I was looking at the car,” Hyde scoffed. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stalked into the kitchen. He could hear Forman and Donna doing their usual boyfriend and girlfriend routine as if they hadn’t seen each other less than half an hour ago.

He was welcomed by the sound of Kitty’s laughter and Buddy’s nervous chuckling. Somehow Buddy had gotten roped into helping Kitty with preparing dinner.

“Sorry, Mrs. Forman.” Buddy was covered in flour and Kitty was helping him wipe his face. “I know I said I shouldn’t be allowed near fire, but I think I should expand that to, well, just about anything kitchen related.”

“It was still sweet of you to offer to help.”

“Hey, Mrs. Forman,” Hyde greeted her, heading to the fridge for a pop. “Buddy.”

He went and took a seat at the breakfast table, Buddy following him. He raised a brow at him and Buddy gave him a sheepish grin.

“Jackie sent me inside so I wouldn’t do more damage to my car,” he explained. “If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m kind of an accident magnet.”

Hyde had noticed. Buddy wasn’t clumsy, but he was accident prone in the oddest way. Hyde had thought Eric’s explanation of Buddy burning his old lab partner had been an exaggeration until it had been confirmed that was indeed why Buddy had to switch lab partners halfway through the school year. There was an agreement that Buddy wasn’t allowed near any Bunsen burners.

He thought Kelso was supposed to be bad with fire, but Buddy was clearly just as bad.

Being acquaintances with Buddy was...odd for lack of a more creative word. Peculiar? They weren’t exactly friends but the two of them had more respect for each other than they had back in Hyde’s original timeline. Hyde was sure that if it weren’t for the fact that he was technically nineteen and much more mature than his almost seventeen year old self, that he wouldn’t be as welcoming of Buddy entering The Circle or at least would have put up more resistance.

It also helped that spending so much time with Jackie and W.B. had changed the low tolerance he had for rich people. It was worth giving people a shot first before tossing them into a box.

“I heard Fez busted your car.”

“Yeah.” Buddy nodded, his lips disappearing into a tight line before he burst into laughter. “It’s actually funnier now than when it happened, but man Fez sucks at driving.”

“I’m sure Jackie will get her license before he does.”

In his original timeline, both Fez and Jackie had damaged someone’s vehicle. Fez had broken his El Camino’s fender and taillight and Jackie had completely ripped the back doors of Kelso’s first van.

Jackie had backed up Kelso’s van and destroyed the doors when helping out Chip and his band. It was something he never followed up on about how that came to be, but it looked like it wasn’t going to repeat itself this time around. Obviously Chip had been after Jackie because as he not so delicately put it, “wanted to nail her.” But why had Jackie hung out with a senior guy and his band? It was likely for the attention. Hyde wasn’t going to dwell on it.

“Yeah, Jackie’s just waiting for her mom to get back so she can go take her test. That or when her dad is free. Whichever one comes first.”

Hyde’s grip tightened around his bottle of orange pop. After his and Jackie’s moment at her birthday party, she never brought up her problems at home again but she did hang around the basement more often. She dragged Donna and Buddy along so that Donna was out of her house more, but that made it so that she and Hyde were never alone together.

He was sure it was for the best. He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle Jackie getting attached to him and having to remind himself that none of it was real, not to take advantage of it all. Smoking in a circle made it easier to forget the times he would smoke alone with her, shotgunning back and forth and having her ride his knuckles to chase a different kind of high.

Their breakup in 1979 had ceased any circle time that they shared together, even with their friends, and Hyde was enjoying having her around again. Jackie was a sight when high. She laughed with abandon, throwing her head back and exposing her slender neck. She was ridiculous but filled with so much mirth and Hyde hadn’t seen that in so long. Not since he made the mistake of making her believe he thought their life together would be crap.

“I gotta go pick up some _tater tots_ from Frank.” Buddy chuckled breathily. The Hub didn’t offer tater tots. It was the codename for what Leo referred to as _film_ . “Jackie invited Donna and I over for another girls’ night and I need some _tots_ if I’m going to let them slather a mud mask on my face while we play Mystery Date again.”

“Girls’ night?” Hyde hoped Buddy explained to Jackie that just because he was gay it didn’t mean he wasn’t still a man. The whole concept of being gay kind of relied on him being a man that liked other men.

Buddy shook his head and groaned. “Yeah, I can’t get Jackie to stop calling it that.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Hyde chuckled into the rim of the bottle before taking a swig.

“I actually thought it would be cool if we all camped out at her place one weekend. I love her and Donna but some guy time would be very much appreciated. Or at least some more testosterone present.”

“I bet you would like that,” Hyde teased him, making sure Kitty had stepped out of the kitchen first. Buddy shot him a half-hearted glare. “Couldn’t resist, man. I mean, you like Forman. That’s gotta be rough.”

Buddy looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, chewing his lip. “Actually. I don’t think I do.”

“What? Realized you could do better now?” Hyde joked. “Don’t let Jackie influence your decision. She and Forman aren’t exactly fans of each other.”

“Ever hear of the idiom looking through rose-colored glasses? I think that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Hyde sighed. He wondered what it was about him that got people talking.

“It’s not that Eric isn’t great, don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s a great guy.” Buddy shrugged, playing with his glass bottle, sliding it back and forth between his hands. “But I don’t know, seeing him as a boyfriend and also like spending time with him more, the crush just kind of died. I think I just kind of liked the idea of being with someone and well...he was safe.”

Hyde couldn’t really say he understood the desire of having a significant other for the sake of having one. Before Jackie he didn’t really have what one would call a relationship and before that summer he was seventeen, if he had been asked to write down what his ideal girl would be like, Jackie wouldn’t have matched up with what he wanted.

Now if he was asked to write down what he wanted in a girlfriend, he wouldn’t write down a list of traits. He would just scrawl really large across the sheet one word: Jackie.

The problem was that Jackie didn’t want to be just a girlfriend. She was only a teenager and ready to be a fiancée, a bride, a wife.

She called them a waste of her time if it wasn’t going to happen for them and he was filled with so much rage and hurt over those words. A waste of fucking time.

It took days for him to be in a state of mind to actually comprehend what she was saying. It didn’t make it any easier to swallow the breakup, but the anger dimmed into a lowlight compared to the supernova that his pain had taken form of in his chest.

It took even longer for him to realize that Jackie’s heart was dealing with a catastrophic explosion of her own and he was the catalyst for that collapse.

“You think Eric would mind giving me a lift to the Hub?” Buddy asked, taking his bottle to where the Formans collected their empty glass bottles. “I’m without a car and Frank expects me.”

“He’s with Donna, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

Now that he was alone—not counting Kitty who had returned to the kitchen—there wasn’t much for him to do. He could head to the basement and watch television or sneak into his room for some alone time. Hyde took advantage of being alone more. Smoking by himself was a lot different than smoking with other people.

Jackie had once said that smoking in groups felt performative. In a group it was just plain weird if you were quiet the whole time the joint or bong was passed around. Everyone kept talking even if they were having a conversation with themselves.

She wasn’t entirely wrong, but he would never tell her that. He hid his desire for smoking alone as something entirely selfish as not wanting to share any of his stash, but sometimes he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts or to just be numb.

This was one of those moments where he wanted to be numb, just let the thoughts buzzing in his head become nothing so he didn’t have to think about how he was a nineteen year old stuck in a sixteen year old body. Oh, and that his ex—who wasn’t really his ex at the moment because of fucking time travel—was barely fifteen feet away being cute as hell over a dragging clutch of all things.

He used to love it when she would shift on the balls of her feet and look at him expectantly when he gave his El Camino a tune up. He loved her covered in grease, contrasting heavily with whatever girly, frou-frou outfit of hers she had on that day.

He really loved it when she wore nothing but his old Forman and Son’s uniform, not caring that it smelled like the muffler shop. He didn’t like the way she had fingered the rough material with a sort of longing that should never have existed considering her distaste for cheap fabrics and polyester.

Jackie had stopped her secret love affair with all things mechanic sometime when Pamela Burkhart had decided she wanted to be a mother again. She would scrunch up her nose in distaste, but Jackie’s eyes would drift to the set of tools in the Formans’ garage and Hyde would grow frustrated knowing Pam had stolen yet another thing from her daughter.

The woman was always doing that and now that he was aware of it in a time period that he and his friends never saw what was going on with Jackie even when it should have been obvious—Hyde wasn’t entirely sure he could just watch it all go down.

A side effect of actually knowing and caring about Jackie was him thinking about her even when he knew he shouldn’t.

Grabbing a fresh pop, Hyde made his way out to the garage. Hyde liked cars and even if the El Camino was his baby it didn’t stop him from thinking that Trans Ams were cherry.

“I heard Fez messed up the Trans Am,” he said in lieu of a greeting, handing Jackie the drink he brought out. She beamed at him, grateful for the pop and took a swig from it.

“Yup.” She laughed against the opening of the glass bottle, her breath causing it to whistle. “That or he was just unlucky it happened while he was the one driving.”

“Buddy is going to need to get a clutch kit,” Red explained, wiping his hands on a rag. “He can take it to a mechanic, but the boy is likely to get swindled and told he needs to replace the whole transmission.”

“If Buddy buys the clutch kit, do you think we,” Jackie pointed from her to Red, “could fix it Mr. Forman?”

“Sure, Jackie.” Red gave her one of his rare small smiles and handed her the rag so she could wipe off excess grease from her hands. “Want to learn how to take care of a Firebird, don’t you? Guess you changed your mind about that Mustang.”

Jackie’s shoulders slumped and her mouth twisted into a pout. “I didn’t even get a chance to talk to my daddy about the car he said he was going to buy me.” She shrugged her shoulders, before giving him a trembling smile. “But he’s a busy man, so that’s to be expected.”

 _Yeah,_ real _busy._ Hyde rolled his eyes. He should have found the exchange annoying━be irritated at another rich kid demanding a brand new car just for turning sixteen━but his irritation was directed at Jack Burkhart. Did he think Jackie needed a brand new car when she could just borrow the Lincoln? No. But Jack could at least talk to his own daughter especially after missing her party.

Because of his experiences with both he and Kelso dating Jackie, Hyde knew Jack only ever really acknowledged Jackie when she disappointed him in some way or when he needed to give her something “shiny” to make up for not being around.

“What are you doing here?” Red turned his attention toward him, looking down the bridge of his nose. “Don’t you have homework or something?”

“It’s Saturday.”

“I should get back to my own homework actually,” Jackie perked up. “I got distracted when Buddy said something was wrong with his car.”

“That’s alright.” Red ruffled the top of Jackie’s hair lightly. “At least you were doing something worthwhile. God knows where Eric is and what he’s doing.”

“The Hub with Donna.” Hyde couldn’t resist throwing Forman under the bus to distract Red from his own homework.

As amusing as it was to listen to Red rant about Eric and his priorities, Hyde was more focused on the way Jackie grinned at him. Back in his own time, Jackie no longer gave him true genuine smiles except for the sad one his last night in 1979, but here she gave them to him often.

It made him want to cup her tiny face in his hands and kiss her. Instead he informed her of where her new best friend was.

“Buddy is with them too. He had to pick up from Frank.”

“Oh.” Jackie nodded in understanding but chewed on her lower lip. “Do you mind if I hang out in the basement while I wait for him and Donna? We’re supposed to have a sleepover tonight.”

“Um.” Hyde stuffed his hands in his hoodie’s pockets and raised a brow at her. Jackie wasn’t the type to ask if she was welcomed somewhere. Despite her few weeks of absence, she returned to the basement to hang out with them even though she and Kelso were broken up. “Sure?”

“Okay! I just gotta wash up first.” She beamed up at him and practically skipped towards the kitchen.

Hyde followed her inside and caught the tail end of Kitty attempting to invite Jackie to dinner, he almost expected a snarky response but Jackie politely declined and explained her plans for pizza because Buddy and Donna overruled her on their dinner plans for the night.

“I’m going to have to do _so_ many ab crunches to burn off all of those carbs.”

That would typically be where Hyde would sneak a comment about a different form of exercise, but he held back for Kitty’s sake and because he didn’t want to throw off Jackie’s good mood. They weren’t exactly in a stage of their developing friendship yet where he could make crude jokes and she would roll with them.

“Guess I’ll grab my work if that’s what we’re doin’,” Hyde told Jackie, which earned him another smile, but he spoke too loudly.

Kitty clapped her hands together in excitement, the way she typically did when Hyde made an effort on his schoolwork. “Oooh, are you two study buddies?”

“Uh,” Hyde dragged out the sound, “no.”

Jackie giggled to herself as he floundered through an explanation that would appease Kitty but also let him make an easy escape down towards the basement.

“Aw, crap.” Hyde stopped at the bottom of the staircase and his face scrunched up in disgust. Laurie and Kelso were on the couch making out and he didn’t want to see that and didn’t want Jackie to see it either. “Would you two get out of here?”

Laurie broke away from Kelso and sneered at Hyde. “This is _my_ house.”

 _Fuck_ , Hyde inwardly huffed. Unlike the annoyance of the original Laurie-Kelso-Jackie drama, Jackie had actually been a welcome addition to the basement this time around without it being because she was effective as Laurie repellent. Laurie had attempted to kick Jackie out of the basement, but the order to Kelso was weak with Donna, Hyde, and Fez backing Jackie as their friend.

“Ugh.” Jackie sneered back at her. “I hope you didn’t slobber all over my binder and cover it with your slut germs you two.”

“Watch it, little girl.” Laurie snapped at Jackie, standing from her seat to use her height to her advantage.

“Little girl?” Jackie laughed in disbelief. She scoffed and pointed at Laurie’s chest. “Looks like you’re just about as little as I am. I thought Eric had stunted growth but I guess that’s just a shared genetic trait.”

Laurie’s face flushed a deep red as she snarled. Kelso’s giggles earned him the redirection of her scorn and she dug her nails into his arm as she dragged him away. “You better watch your back!” She shouted as she stomped up the staircase.

“And you should spend less time on yours!” Jackie shot back. Kelso couldn’t resist crying out his support of the burn on Laurie which earned him another hit from her. Jackie rolled her eyes and made a noise of disgust at the couch before moving around to sit on the stool with the rainbow cushion. “Thank God. It looks like my binder is safe.”

She flipped open her binder and pulled out the unicorn head topped pen Hyde had bought for her birthday. It was the kind of cute and glittery thing sixteen year old━and eighteen year old━Jackie adored and just like he had planned, it was something that was actually useful. She hadn’t brought it up to anyone where she had got it from, so it seemed he was in the clear about his gift giving.

Hyde waited to see if Jackie was affected at all by Kelso making out with another girl in front of her. Other than disgust she seemed completely cool with it and he had to make note of that.

He had been coming up with theories about this new timeline. There was no way he was going to remember every little thing that happened in the past, especially when they weren’t events that he was involved in so he couldn’t be completely sure.

The new screwy timeline gave to him as much as it took away. It had to be a technique to make the parts that bothered him much worse. That or the government had tapped into his memories and pieced together whatever they could to create a 1976 he could return to. It would explain why Jackie felt more like the Jackie he left in 1979 than the one he grew up with in 1976.

So far there didn’t seem to be any major changes outside of Jackie dumping Kelso and making friends with Buddy Morgan. He had been floating through 1976, just letting it happen around him. He was grateful for missing getting arrested again at least.

The only difference he had actively worked to make was being more of a friend to Jackie than he had been before they hooked up. It was one thing he had reflected on when Buddy came into the picture.

Hyde and Jackie were friends in the loosest definition of the word before they started dating. They tolerated each other and could hang out and while he missed being able to do just that, he also missed the closeness they had while dating. It wasn’t about touching or sex━although his body was craving just that and it was conflicting with his mind and his heart considering everytime his engine was revved, his gears would flip and memories of Jackie would invade his senses.

Whenever the opportunity presented itself all he could think about was big brown eyes rimmed with red, making them look impossibly larger, and welling with tears. 1976 Jackie wouldn’t give a shit if he went and fucked whoever, but he cared. He didn’t want anyone else.

It wasn’t like when Jackie had decided that kissing him was only physical but did nothing for her emotionally and he could just carry on with his life.

He was just going to have to do what he was best at and pretend nothing bothered him.

Even when Jackie did cute shit like tap her pen to her lips as she worked through problems in her homework and hummed along to the music he played as background noise.

When they were both in school while dating, they used to do their homework in the privacy of their bedrooms where he had fun distracting her when he got bored of his schoolwork. That wasn’t an option now, but he could at least enjoy Jackie’s presence.

Hyde was just about ready to call it a night and stuff his school stuff back in his room when _Stairway_ began to play. It wasn’t suspicious that he was playing the untitled Led Zeppelin album. It was his favorite band so it was a safe choice, but then he remembered a comment Jackie had told him once during the play through of side one when they were laying around with nothing to do but enjoy breathing the same air.

_“It reminds me of my mother.”_

He hadn’t understood why she had said it at the time because it was still the beginning of their relationship, but once he got to really know Jackie, _really_ know her, he started to get it.

“This song reminds me of my mother.” Hyde’s heart stuttered for a moment when Jackie murmured that same sentence, voice soft and vulnerable.

In the back of his mind Hyde knew he should have questioned why 1976 Jackie knew any Zeppelin songs this early. Not even Donna was able to get her to listen to them even though they had bonded over Fleetwood Mac and The Runaways. Jackie hadn’t even properly known they were a band until Hyde sat her down for a music lesson after the two of them and Kelso lost out on going to a concert when Donna decided to give the Zeppelin tickets to Fez and Caroline. He had decided then that if the two of them were going to be friends in any capacity, that she had to learn about the greatest band alive.

Jackie of course had only loved the mushy, romantic songs and Hyde had to take the win as it was. The win became sweeter when a year after that Jackie would sing under her breath, slightly off key, the words to _Thank You_ as she did that thing he loved where she lightly traced the veins under his wrist with the tips of her pretty nails.

“How are things with her?” Hyde asked. If he could talk to Donna about her family issues, why not Jackie? Sixteen year old Hyde had only talked to her about her Kelso problems because that’s all he ever knew about her back then. But now, especially with the events of her birthday party, he was sure Jackie could feel safe talking to him about something more difficult to open up about.

Jackie laughed bitterly, twirling her pen in her hand. “She doesn’t know how to deal with me unless it involves makeup and shopping. Mom just let daddy take care of grounding me and then that was that.” Jackie looked down at her hands and chipped at her nails. “I haven’t seen her in a week.”

“Wait. You’re grounded? Like, right now?” That couldn’t be right. Buddy said he and Donna were going over to Jackie’s house to hang out later.

“Yup.” Jackie made the _P_ pop when the word tumbled out of her mouth. “I don’t know if it’s that they’re too busy with their own lives to know what I’m doing or if they forgot. The only time I really feel the punishment is when daddy takes away my cards and checkbook. And God does it hurt when he does that.”

That last statement was so Jackie, especially with her signature pout, that Hyde couldn’t help but laugh. Jackie glared at him and smacked him with the cushion from the stool.

“Hey!” He raised his arms in defense. “No pillow fights unless you’re in a nighty.”

“Oh, shut up you pig.” Jackie laughed, smacking him one last time before setting the cushion back.

* * *

Jackie continued to glare at Donna from across their table at The Hub, but Donna kept staring back unflinching.

“Are you going to eat those fries?” Michael asked, his hand inching toward her basket of fries. Steven slapped his hand away and tugged the fries closer to their side of the table.

Jackie and Buddy had met Donna, Eric, Michael, and Steven at The Hub after school and discovered that Eric had gotten suspended for holding Donna’s cigarette. On top of that, Donna had failing marks in her Interim Report Card for a few of her classes. The highest grade she could likely get when the first quarter ended was a C━a B if she made sure to only get As in all of her assignments━and Jackie was upset with her.

“Did you even try?” Jackie scolded her from her booth seat next to Steven.

“Why are _you_ mad?” Eric glared at her. “I’m the one that got suspended here. Red is going to kill me.”

“Oh, shut up Eric.” Jackie rolled her eyes. She was tempted to throw her pop at him. He kept complaining about getting suspended in Donna’s place, but protecting his girlfriend was just what a good boyfriend does. “It’s not always about you. Donna, what’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, Jackie.” Donna rolled her eyes. “I can fix my grades before the end of the quarter.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Steven spoke up, stealing some of Jackie’s fries. He flashed her a sarcastic grin before popping a fry in his mouth. “She’s smoking and failing her classes. This is Donna’s cry for help. Well, we hear you, Donna. And we love you.”

“It’s not funny, Steven.”

“Come on, Jackie. It kind of is. I mean Forman got suspended! Never thought that would ever happen.” Steven chuckled. “I’m kind of proud.”

“I don’t really care about that.” Michael leaned over the table and pointed a finger back and forth between Jackie and Steven. “What’s going on with you two? Since when do you two sit together.”

“It’s just a freaking seat, Kelso,” Buddy snapped. He had been silent, watching in amusement as Jackie reprimanded Donna, but as soon as Michael tried to make a comment he would scoff and roll his eyes.

It had been like that ever since Jackie and Buddy started hanging out with everyone. Michael had been annoying as ever at school, always popping up when Jackie was innocently talking to a boy. Buddy would intervene whenever he could and remind Michael about how Laurie was his girlfriend and how he was still hooking up with random girls.

 _“I’ve been cheated on before,”_ Buddy had explained when Jackie confronted him about how personal he seemed to be taking Michael’s actions. _“And my mother has been cheated on. So I hate assholes like that. That and he’s an idiot.”_

Fez had finally shown up and approached them with a big smile on his face. “Hello friends of Fez.”

Buddy offered him his seat and went to grab another one from a nearby table. Fez gratefully took the seat and scooted closer to Donna to make room for Buddy.

“I have exciting news,” Fez continued, “my host parents set me up on a blind date. She even has a friend for you, Hyde. And the good news is, they’re not even blind.”

Everyone frowned at him except for Buddy who snorted which caused Fez to beam, proud of his bad joke.

Jackie pinched her leg under the table and stuffed fries into her mouth to keep from reacting outwardly. She wasn’t allowed to get upset over sixteen year old Steven dating. They were never a thing and it would have been weird for everyone if she reacted negatively to the idea of him going out with someone.

What she hadn’t expected was his reply to Fez.

“No thanks, Fez.” Steven pulled the basket of fries away from Jackie and frowned at the way she had stuffed herself with a fistfull of fries. “Knowing your host parents, I’m sure they’re a pair of nice church girls and I’m not into that.”

“Oh.” Fez furrowed his brows in disappointment. “Well, they are from Sacred Heart. What am I going to do then?”

Michael raised his hand straight up in the air in excitement. “I’ll go!”

“Oh, please,” Jackie laughed haughtily, “you’ll just try to make it with both girls and poor Fezzie will be dateless. And you have a girlfriend, Michael. I know it’s only Laurie, but you really can’t be loyal to anyone, can you?”

Jackie crossed her arms in front of her chest in disgust. She knew there was no way Laurie and Michael had any chance of staying with each other but it was disappointing to see one of her friends behave so awfully. That and Fez deserved a chance to find someone.

“Oh, he’s loyal to something alright,” Buddy muttered, taking a swig of his soda. Jackie couldn’t help but giggle at the comment but then she gasped in realization.

“Buddy! You can go on the blind date.”

Buddy choked on his drink and Fez clapped on his back in support. “W-what?”

“You can be Fez’s wingman and make sure the date goes well and that Fez doesn’t do any of his weird foreigner stuff.”

“Yeah, and there’s no chance of you running off with his date.” Hyde nodded approvingly. “She could still run off though.”

“Holy shit.” Donna looked at her with awe on her face. “That’s actually really smart.”

“I keep telling you that I’m a genius, Donna.” Jackie gave her spirit fingers to emphasize the statement which only earned her laughter from Donna and Buddy. “I just wish you took up my offer to tutor you for Spanish. I helped Steven and he got an A.”

“What?” All of the boys except for Steven asked in shock.

“I don’t know what I’m more surprised about,” Eric guffawed. “The fact that Hyde got an A in a class that wasn’t Shop, the fact that he willingly spent time learning from Jackie, or that Jackie is smart enough to tutor anyone.”

“Get bent you jerk.” Donna stood up and glared at him in disgust. “You’ve been acting like a real tool today and I’m not sticking around for it.”

 _Oh, no_. Jackie clutched at her skirt. She was elated that Donna took offense when she was insulted but she wasn’t supposed to be a wedge in Donna and Eric’s relationship. If this continued, they would end up breaking up a lot sooner than they had in Jackie’s original timeline and that wasn’t supposed to happen this time around. She began to stand up to chase after Donna when Steven grabbed her wrist.

“Let Forman clean up his own mess.”

Eric took that as his cue to leave and went after Donna, shoulders slumped in defeat.

“He didn’t even apologize to Jackie.” Buddy looked around at everyone in disbelief.

“Yeah, you’ll get used to that.” Michael was finally able to steal the fries, but Jackie didn’t mind now that they were cold. “No one here likes her much.”

Jackie turned to yell at him but was cut off by Buddy. “Then why the hell did you date her? You know what, I’m done. Let’s go Jackie. You too Fez. You can show us what you plan to wear for your date.” He paused for a beat and then smirked. “And then Jackie will pick out what you’re actually wearing.”

Jackie grabbed her fur trimmed coat and slipped it back on before turning to Steven. “Do you want a ride, Steven?”

“Nah. I have a shift at the Fotohut.” Steven gave her a small smile. “I’ll just walk from here.”

Steven was giving her more of those small smiles and Jackie couldn’t help the way her stomach fluttered at the sight. She knew it was dangerous what she was doing. Hanging out with Steven was setting her up for more heartache.

It was just so unfair. He kept acting like his usual foxy self and he was so caring, actually listening to her when she told him about her mother and sometimes it felt like they were even flirting and Jackie didn’t know what to do with that.

1976 Steven wasn’t supposed to flirt with her. He was supposed to burn her and he was supposed to be sickened by everything that she was. And she was supposed to feel the same way. He was just making it so hard to find him unappealing.

It didn’t help that the both of them were growing and their bodies maturing. Steven was bulking up and filling out his band shirts more, his sweatshirts stretched tighter across his chest. Jackie had been lost in the excitement of finally being able to purchase proper bras and not just camisoles that she had almost forgotten about Steven’s muscle gains.

Just the way he moved was a turn on and Jackie’s younger body was frustrating her. Now she not only had to deal with her aching heart wanting to be around him all of the time, but also other parts of her that ached to be touched.

She longed for his arm to drape around her shoulders and for her to cuddle against him, feeling the way the words vibrated in his chest as he spoke. She missed the way her fingers felt encased in his and the way he breathed when she kissed him.

Jackie thought being in 1976 would make it easier to deal with her feelings for Steven of 1979. All it proved was how much it hurt not to be with him and how much she missed him.

And she was so tired of wanting someone that didn’t want her back.

* * *

It shouldn’t have mattered. Especially now that Hyde knew the truth, but it was one of those things that he was curious about especially since the man thought he was his father.

When he realized that he was stuck in 1976, Hyde knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t live with Bud or give him the time of a day. But a simple curiosity had him seeking his stepfather out.

Lying on the basement couch, Hyde reflected back on the meeting. He had no idea what he had expected to happen, but he hadn’t expected Bud not to recognize him at all. He sat at the bar ordering drinks and when his stepfather commented that he looked familiar, this time Hyde didn’t call him “dad.”

 _It answered_ that _question._

Besides being back in town for a whole year before Hyde had run into him at a bar, Bud had really won Father of the Year by not even recognizing who he had thought was his kid. He was sure that Bud wouldn’t come looking for him this time around. Hyde was glad he went alone. He wouldn’t be able to handle it if the Formans tried to get involved.

He was just fine with Red as his father figure and W.B. was a much better father despite only knowing he was his biological father for about six months.

So why did it still make him so angry?

Hyde got up from the couch, the rage energizing him too much for him to keep still. He was pacing around the couch when the basement door opened up.

“Hey.” Jackie set her purse down on top of the stereo and removed her fur trimmed coat. “Where is everyone?”

“Not here obviously.” The words came out harsher than he had intended and he expected Jackie to snap at him in defense. He pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed deeply through his mouth in an attempt to calm down. “Look, Jackie. Now’s not a good time.”

Seeing her now after meeting with Bud, all he could think about was how she walked out on him, breaking his heart. He couldn’t separate his own hurt from the reasons why Jackie had to leave when he was feeling raw from the mistake he made walking into that bar.

Hyde was disgusted with Bud, but he was disgusted with himself. He just wanted to know if Bud could look him in the eye and know who was standing in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” Hyde felt a pull on his shirt from around his stomach and looked down. Jackie had pinched the fabric and pulled him toward her so he couldn’t continue pacing. “Steven?”

Jackie cocked her head to side, a little wrinkle forming between her brows as she looked up at him with concern, not letting go of his shirt. That was _his_ Jackie’s move. He half expected for her to wrap her arms around his waist, dig her hands into his back pockets, and pull him flush against her.

 _I am so boned._ Hyde shut his eyes, hoping that not seeing her would prevent him from seeking comfort in her touch by wrapping his own arms around her.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Jackie.”

“Oh, right.” Jackie let go of his shirt. “Not with me.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong. He wouldn’t have minded talking to eighteen year old Jackie, the one that was his girlfriend, but that wasn’t possible.

“That’s not it. I don’t talk to anyone,” he informed her. He did talk about stuff that bothered him, just not to sixteen year old Jackie. And even if he weren’t stuck in 1976, eighteen year old Jackie wasn’t talking to him and he wasn’t talking to her in return because she wouldn’t talk to him and just tell him she missed him and made a mistake when she broke up with him. “It’s kind of my thing.”

“Well that’s not _my_ thing.” Jackie crossed her arms in front of her chest and directed her gaze to the ground. “But that’s probably why Donna’s mad at me.”

“What’s going on with you and Donna? I thought she was mad at Forman, not you?”

“No.” Jackie laughed bitterly. “She shoved her tongue down his throat and forgave him, but told me to butt out of her drama with her parents ‘cause I wouldn’t understand. And then I got upset and left.”

“Well, then maybe you _should_ butt out of her drama.” Hyde fell backwards on the couch and leaned his head back. When it came to Donna, Jackie was such a busybody and she needed to learn to give her some space. Sometimes all Donna wanted was Forman to be there for her and Jackie was just going to make it worse by acting like she knew best.

Jackie slumped onto the couch next to him, her weight causing the cushions to dip. “I care about that big goon and I’m just trying to be there for her. Her parents are freaks and they didn’t even notice all of that crap she was doing.”

“So you noticed she was trying to get her parents’ attention?”

“Of course I did.” Jackie gave him an incredulous look. Hers usually came with an extra side of attitude. “She wasn’t subtle at all.”

“Oh? And you know how to be subtle?” Hyde couldn’t help but tease her. Jackie wasn’t one for subtlety. She would always try to get his attention or something out of him and it was always obvious what she was doing.

“I can be subtle!” Jackie snapped back, but her shoulders slumped in her uncertainty. “No, not really I guess. I thought I was once but my parents are too busy to notice unless I’m in their face about stuff. That’s kind of what happened with ballet.”

Hyde straightened up in his seat. That wasn’t something he had heard from 1979 Jackie. He knew she had done ballet up until she entered high school and dedicated her time to cheer and other superficial things like how she was the best dancer and won awards like ‘Prettiest Ballerina’ which he doubted was a real award.

“You took ballet?” Hyde asked, pretending that he didn’t already know that fact about her. “Do you still got the leo and tights?”

Jackie shot him a half-hearted glare, but she adjusted herself to get more comfortable on the couch. “I did. But I quit when I was in eighth grade, because…”

Hyde gestured lazily with his hand for her to continue and she rolled her eyes before facing him properly.

“I quit to see if my parents even noticed that I had. I used to work so hard for all of those solos and they never even showed up to my recitals. But it was okay because they would get me something whenever they missed one.” Jackie balled her fists into the hem of her sweater. “But all of the other girls had their parents sitting in the audience and they were getting roses and my parents weren’t even there to see me win Prettiest Ballerina.”

“That can’t be a real thing.”

“It is!” Jackie insisted. Her lips tightened into a straight line but her eyes shined with glee. “Okay, okay. It’s not actually called that and that’s not the title. I was the _prima_ of my dance class which meant I was the top of the class. If I continued maybe I would have joined a company or something after high school.”

“Huh.” That actually made more sense, especially considering in his original timeline Jackie used her dance skills to win roller disco competitions with Fez. He thought Jackie’s mother had made it up and fucked Jackie up even more when it came to her vanity.

“Yup. And well, so I quit. Just to see if my parents would ask me about my recitals. The gifts stopped coming but the questions were never asked.” Jackie’s mouth twisted to the side, her eyes glazing over. “Mom finally asked about my Winter Recital last year. I had quit before the Spring Recital the year before.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t tell Donna all of that.” He wasn’t that surprised that she shared that with him. It was just the way they were.

“If she weren’t so upset over her parents’ sex life she would have just given me that face. You know the one where she pities you.” Jackie’s little nose scrunched up in disgust.

“What fad are they into now?” It was either the nudist thing or dating other people. He couldn’t keep up or remember them all.

“I think this week they’ve decided to become swingers.” Jackie shivered in disgust. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that all of these old people still have sex.”

“Sex is a beautiful thing,” Hyde attempted to tease her, but she interrupted him.

“It’s Bob Pinciotti, Steven.”

“Yeah, that’s a mood killer.” He shivered himself, rubbing his palms on top of his thighs. Despite the disturbing topic, it had distracted him enough from his frustration over Bud. “So,” he continued casually, “I saw my dad today.”

Jackie’s eyes went wide and she reached over to put a hand on his upper arm. Her touch was a comforting weight, but he resisted leaning into it. It was strange how Jackie was around this time to talk about his stepdad just like she had been there for him about his biological father.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t mind so much admitting what he had done despite not wanting Forman around when he met Bud.

She had held him then, his head laid against her sternum and she stroked his hair as he was lulled to sleep by the sound of her heartbeat. He wasn’t close enough to 1976 Jackie for her to comfort him that way.

“He didn’t recognize me. So I left.” Hyde shrugged. “And he left first so who cares, right? I don’t need him.”

“You have Mr. Forman anyway.” Jackie patted his shoulder. “I think you’ve traded up.”

The two of them settled into silence, Jackie had pulled away reluctantly and sat as far from him as the couch allowed her to. If this was the original 1976, Hyde wouldn’t even have acknowledged the space between them. He wouldn’t care if she was comfortable with their proximity, he had demanded his space not caring if his spread legs invaded her personal bubble.

The quiet must have been overwhelming for Jackie. She stood up and started rifling through the records. “How do you think Fez’s date is going?”

“No clue.” All Hyde could remember was that in a few months, Fez was going to end up in a relationship with the girl he wasn’t hanging out with tonight. “He and Buddy will probably come here and tell us how it went if Fez tanked it.”

“Do you feel a little bad for Buddy’s date? I didn’t really think about her when I suggested Buddy go on the date with Fez.” Jackie walked over to the record player.

“I will throw you out if you play Peter Frampton again, Jackie.” Jackie stuck her tongue out at him and flashed him the jacket of the record she had been holding. Turning away from him she placed _Who’s Next_ on the player. “You listen to The Who?”

Jackie shrugged her shoulders and placed the needle on the record. “Sometimes.”

Hyde attempted to control his breathing as Jackie fiddled with her bag to pull out a Tiger Beat and then plopped back down on the couch beside him. Late in the summer that they had first started messing around, The Who was one of the bands Hyde had tried to get Jackie to listen to and understand. He figured the synth would be upbeat enough to keep her attention even as he explained the complexity of the songs.

 _“I thought talking was for people that had something in common,”_ Jackie had thrown his words back at him. They had argued a little but ended up coming to a compromise where he could only rant about albums that contained at least one romantic song.

Being back in 1976, before he could talk to Jackie about music, the only conclusion he could come up with was that she was adopting new tastes and interests due to hanging out with Buddy. She was already talking cars with him and now music.

If she ended up learning chess from Buddy, Hyde was probably going to lock himself in his room and wait out the rest of his time travel punishment as a hermit. Teaching her had been a bonding moment for them and it finally gave him someone to play with. Playing chess they learned a lot more about each other than just game play.

_“Once upon a time I knew the basics,” Jackie had confessed, cradling a pawn she had just taken from him in her hand. “Daddy had a really pretty glass chess set that he used to teach me how to play. One day as I was practicing by myself, I accidentally broke a rook and a knight and we never played again.”_

“Stop staring at me.” Jackie rolled up her magazine and slapped his arm with it. “It’s just music, Steven.”

“ _Just music?_ ” Hyde asked her incredulously. Maybe there was something for him to teach her.

They were interrupted by the sound of people coming down the staircase from the kitchen. Forman and Donna were marching down as Forman celebrated no longer being in trouble with Red.

“Guess what, Hyde? I was just outside and━what are you guys doing?”

“What’s it look like?” Hyde couldn’t hold back the snark. Between Kelso and Forman, he was getting tired of the shit he was getting just for platonically hanging out with Jackie.

“Sitting,” Donna said good humoredly as she sat on the arm of the couch by Jackie. “Hanging. Sitting and hanging.”

“Then that’s what we’re doing.” Hyde reached over and grabbed a copy of Mad magazine that was sitting on the wagon wheel table. He had already flipped through it in the past, but it had been long enough to still feel new.

Eric pulled out a popsicle and then pulled himself up onto the deep freeze to take a seat. “But why?”

“Cut it out, Eric.” Donna shook her head but she continued to smile at him. “Jackie probably came down here looking for everyone and Hyde just happened to be the only one here.”

“Close.” Jackie crossed her legs and turned to Donna. “But we really were hanging out. It’s not that weird.”

“Yes it is.” Both Donna and Forman said at the same time. Except that while Forman was disgusted, Donna seemed amused.

Hyde wasn’t about to sit through another lecture about Jackie being Kelso’s girl despite the fact that they had broken up months ago and he and Jackie really were only friends at the moment. It wasn’t a crime to sit alone in a basement and talk.

“You’re doing homework together and sitting together when we all go out,” Forman started ticking off the ‘offenses’ on his fingers, “and now you’re listening to music━good music━and talking alone. You might as well be dating.”

“Yeah, Jackie. What’s up?” Donna bounced in her seat, a grin spreading on her face. It reminded Hyde of her eagerness for information when Jackie had crashed Kelso’s van and they found out she had been hanging out with a band.

“First off, if we were dating you would have walked in on something completely different.” Like they had in Hyde’s original timeline. “Second, if that’s what you think considers being in a relationship everyone in this room is in a quasi-foursome.”

“Isn’t that what got you and Donna in a fight during the David Milbank situation almost a year ago, Eric?” Jackie crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively. “You fought because you couldn’t trust her or that guys and girls can be friends.”

“Bad example.” Hyde recalled that incident. Forman ended up being right about Milbank wanting to sleep with Donna. And as much as he wouldn’t mind having sex with Jackie, that wasn’t where his interests lied. He just wanted to hang out with her like they used to.

And Forman was ruining it.

“It doesn’t matter.” Jackie flapped her hand like she was brushing it off. “You should be glad your best friend gets along with Donna’s best friend. It makes everyone’s life easier.”

“I still can’t believe _you_ are Donna’s best friend.” Forman used his popsicle go point at Jackie. “How did that happen?”

_Huh._

Things were really wonky in the new timeline if Donna had already accepted the fact that she and Jackie were best friends and Forman wasn’t the one making her realize it.

“She’s much better now that she’s not dating Kelso to be honest.” Donna graced Jackie with an affectionate smile. “She’s still loud and annoying, but then she became more of a mildly tolerable brat. She’ll be working her way to a lovable sister figure soon.” She dodged when Jackie tried to smack her with one of the green throw pillows and stuck her tongue out in return. “Sorry for yelling at you earlier. That wasn’t you, that was residual anger from my parents.”

“Give me a ride home and we’ll call it even.” Jackie stood up and took her coat off from the hook. “I really don’t want to walk all the way home and I want to call Buddy and ask him how Fez’s date went.”

“Yeah. Let’s snag the keys for the El Dorado. Doubt they’ll even notice I took the car.”

Hyde watched them leave the basement, just a little annoyed at how his time with Jackie was interrupted. It bugged him that he couldn’t even offer to drop Jackie off without it being a thing with Forman, because he would have to borrow the Vista Cruiser. Even if he had his El Camino, he was sure it would have ended up with Forman waiting for him to return so he could interrogate him about it.

“Don’t sleep with Satan’s minion, Hyde.”

Of all things for Forman to say, Hyde hadn’t expected that. He expected complaints about how Jackie was invading in his space first by becoming closer friends with Donna and then Fez and now Hyde. He expected Forman to rant about how they should have finally been rid of Jackie Burkhart when she broke up with Kelso.

“I don’t plan on it.”

And Hyde didn’t. Jackie wasn’t the type to sleep with someone she didn’t have feelings for and Hyde didn’t want to be someone Jackie slummed it with. He cared about her way too much to even consider it being an option. There was only one way Hyde was going to fall back into bed with Jackie, even if it was a weird timeline Jackie, and that was if she was calling him her boyfriend.

“Good. Because we really don’t need that in our group,” Forman continued to rant even as he slumped onto the couch next to him. “It’s not even about Kelso—I couldn’t care less. But like as much as it weirds me out, she _is_ Donna’s best friend and it would be weird if you turned her into your girl of the week and ditched her when you realize it’s Jackie Freakin’ Burkhart. Donna’s best girl friend is off limits.”

“Wait.” There was only one part of that whole speech that Hyde had the energy to focus on. “You don’t care about Kelso?”

“Fuck him, he’s dating my sister.” Forman shrugged, disgust clouding his face. “He obviously doesn’t care about the code.”

That made things interesting. And really highlighted the events after his unsuccessful first date with Jackie. As weirded out as Forman and Donna were about the date, neither one of them had mentioned anything about Kelso. The two of them had mostly just teased him because he and Jackie were complete opposites and that he had caved to a date in the first place.

At the time, Kelso had been dividing his time between dating Laurie, sleeping with any girl or lonely housewife that said yes, and insisting that he loved Jackie in the gaps between that.

Hyde’s only intentions were to be friends with Jackie and that support she was going to need for as long as he was stuck in this time warp. But what Forman said had him thinking about the what ifs.

* * *

Jackie had tried really hard, but unfortunately the results were the same as they were in 1977 and the only place that would take her with her lack of experience was the Cheese Palace.

She had started to feel weird about spending the money she received from her father. Her stomach would start to hurt anytime she handed over her bank card or wrote a check. It wasn’t until she was buying Donna a new sweater to celebrate her new job at the radio station that she realized that she was feeling guilty about using money that could have been stolen from other people.

It wasn’t like she could know if she was using the ones her father earned or if it was the money he had embezzled.

Jackie walked around the mall looking for job openings in fashion stores, but she was either too young or too inexperienced. When she realized she had only one last area of the mall to look for a job, she groaned and dragged her feet until she was standing in front of the familiar blonde and bearded face of Todd.

Because of her knowledge of Todd’s infatuation with her she could now see the way his eyes brightened and the way he stood up straighter when she walked into the little cheese shop. When she first applied for the job she had been too dejected to even take comfort in her beauty affecting someone.

“Can I just say that you look adorable?” Buddy had given her that same face where he tried to hold back from smiling really big, but his eyes twinkled with delight.

“It still amazes me at how short the dress is,” Jackie griped as she looked down at her uniform. The only outfit she owned that was as short as her Cheese Maiden dress was her cheerleading uniform. “At least I have the legs to pull it off.”

Buddy nodded in agreement and led her to his car. She had been lucky that he was available to give her a ride after her first shift. He had been confused about her wanting to get a job so Jackie had to quickly come up with a lie.

_“I finally confronted daddy about his promise to get me a new car. He wasn’t happy that I was being so bratty about it and cut me off. He had no plans about getting me a muscle car. I want that car so I’m just going to have to save up for it myself.”_

Buddy had narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but dropped the conversation after that. He joked that he hoped her dad didn’t give his dad any ideas.

Pulling up to the Formans’ driveway, Jackie was met with a familiar sight that made her chest hurt from the nostalgia.

“Hey, it’s one of your favorites, an El Camino!” Buddy exclaimed.

They walked up the drive as Eric conceded that the El Camino was cooler than the Vista Cruiser. Jackie smiled at the happiness Steven couldn’t hide from his face as he looked under the hood.

“So Hyde got a car?” Buddy asked as they approached the guys standing around the pickup. “Nice.”

The four boys turned their attention to them and Eric and Michael immediately started laughing at Jackie’s work uniform. Steven flashed her a sarcastic smirk and looked her up and down.

“You know my birthday isn’t until next month, right?”

“Ugh!” Jackie slapped his chest with the back of her hand, her face flushing red.

Steven was the one back in her own timeline that made the crude comments about her uniform, but it wasn’t until they started fooling around that she discovered he had a thing for them. Steven enjoyed her cheerleading uniform thoroughly throughout their relationship and she had even worn his work smock for Red's muffler shop.

“I still can’t believe your dad cut you off.” Eric chuckled. “Oh, you’re going to smell like cheese all of the time now.”

“And somehow I’ll still smell better than you,” Jackie snarled back. She knew she should have gone home to shower first. She never could escape the smell of cheese after a shift without one unless she drowned herself in her expensive perfume.

“We must thank whoever designed the Cheese Maiden uniform.” Fez leered at her, but the smile melted off his face and was replaced by gloom. “Ai. Not even Jackie’s small outfit can cure my depression.”

“Is this still about the Sacred Heart transfer?” Buddy asked Hyde who nodded in response as he tinkered with a part of the engine.

Jackie’s stomach ached from guilt again as she looked at Fez’s morose expression. She had let slip to Caroline that Fez had a girlfriend he loved more than anything back home and that had her stop making eyes at him and giving him nervous smiles. She knew Fez really liked Caroline, but that in the long run it wasn’t safe for him to get involved with her. Jackie had even planned on being nicer to Patty or Big Rhonda, if and when Fez hooked up with them as long as it wasn’t Crazy Caroline.

At least Rhonda and Fez were sweet together in their weird way. All before stupid Casey Kelso got involved.

She couldn’t look at him long enough without feeling awful and wanting to tell him about how weird Caroline was. To distract herself from Fez’s heartache, Jackie moved closer to Steven and bent under the hood to take a look at his El Camino. Almost instantly she felt arms wrap around her midsection and pull her away.

“No bending over in the Cheese Maiden uniform,” Buddy scolded her.

“Booo!” Came the sounds of disapproval from Michael and Fez. Steven balled up the rag he had resting on the El Camino and threw it at Michael’s face.

“I gotta go. I have something for Donna.” Jackie lifted the shipping bag in her hand. “I hope she gets as excited about her new gift as she was about alphabetizing 8-tracks and cleaning up rock star vomit.”

“Yeah, while you’re over there can you ask _Hot Donna_ when she’s going to be free to spend time with her boyfriend. The one she said she doesn’t have.”

“Ugh. Not this again.” Jackie sneered at Eric almost smacking him with the shopping bag when she turned back around to face him. “Have you tried trusting your girlfriend and I don’t know, talking to her? You have legs—albeit twiggy bird legs, but legs—you can walk over there yourself, you doofus.”

One thing Jackie couldn’t fix in the past was the way she spoke to Eric at times. She would try to be nicer to him for Donna’s sake, but then he would do something to irritate her, whether it was the way he held himself or the remarks he made about any topic. She wasn’t looking forward to him watching Star Wars in May of 1977 and becoming obsessed.

And no matter how often she gave him advice to his problems with Donna he dismissed her and then got mad when things blew up in his face. She was starting to understand how Steven felt whenever Eric screwed something up because he couldn’t follow directions.

She tried to remind herself of those small moments where Eric was a decent person and there for her, but he was making it so difficult. Perhaps they were just meant to always dislike each other.

“She has a point Eric,” Buddy backed her up. “If you can't find time to see her when she lives right next door, have you considered surprising her at work? Take her something to eat or something.”

“And remember that her job is cool and she loves it so _don’t embarrass her._ ” Jackie shook her head and rolled her eyes on exasperation. Knowing Eric, there was a high chance he would embarrass the both of them.

“Remind her that she needs to make sure she’s off for the festival in Kenosha.” Hyde closed the hood of the El Camino.

“Oh!” Michael snapped his fingers and stood up from where he was leaning against the truck. “I forgot to tell Laurie.”

“Kelso.” Eric rolled his eyes and groaned. “You can’t invite my sister.”

“Why not?”

Eric shifted his gaze over to Jackie and then back to Michael when she caught his eye. Jackie’s chest warmed at the gesture. She expected him to complain about how he didn’t like Laurie and didn’t want to spend time with her. This was one of those moments that made Jackie think of him as such a good guy. Despite not liking her, he still cared about her feelings.

It’s why she gave him the shopping bag and told him to deliver it for her and to sit down and have a discussion with Donna. If all else failed, he could distract her with the sweater and say it was a gift from him and give Jackie the thirty-five dollars later.

* * *

Point Place was a sleepy suburban town where almost nothing happened. Ever. It was why most of the teens turned to drinking, drugs,vandalism, or sex for entertainment. Well at least that was why Hyde turned to those things for entertainment. That and bowling.

It was why for bigger events, they had to drive to the harbor city of Kenosha. Madison or Milwaukee were better choices but the drive to Madison was over two hours and none of their parents were going to let a bunch of sixteen year olds drive out that far and back in one night.

And no one was going to try and convince Red that a bunch of teenagers could get a hotel room. Not to mention the fact that Kitty would also have something to say considering Donna and Jackie would be coming along for the trip.

Hyde still wasn’t sure how they got away with a trip to Canada in 1977. That had been almost a nine hour drive one way and Fez delayed them coming back with his Green Card issues.

“Sorry,” Jackie whispered to him and scooted closer to the window to give him more room.

If there were only six passengers, they could expect a comfortable ride in the Vista Cruiser. Kelso inviting Laurie along forced them to stuff Fez in the trunk space so Buddy could sit up front with Donna and Forman. Buddy was barely taller than Fez, but when trying to cram four people in the back seat it made sense for Jackie who was the smallest to squeeze in back there. And there was no way Laurie could sit up front with Eric and Donna for any amount of time.

Buddy had also refused to sit next to Laurie and Laurie demanded that Kelso sit with her so they could make out the forty-five minutes it took to get to their destination.

Reaching across to the other side of the bench, Hyde slapped Kelso on the back of his head, causing him to bite down on Laurie’s tongue.

Forman had told Kelso that Laurie couldn’t come along to the Harvest Festival but that didn’t stop him from inviting her along. They weren’t able to leave her behind once Red got involved.

“You little street urchin,” Laurie growled at Hyde and elbowed him as she soothed her tongue. “You’ll pay for that.”

“Can it, street _walker_ ,” Jackie snapped back in defense of Hyde, leaning into him to sneer at Laurie.

“Okay, we’re here,” Forman squeaked as he pulled into a first available parking space he could find.

“Aw, does the rich brat have a widdle cwush on the orphan?” Laurie taunted her as they stepped out of the vehicle. “Guess you had to trade down after I took your one true love away.”

“Michael Kelso is _not_ my one true love,” Jackie scoffed. “He’s just the doofus I dated as a freshman.”

“Ugh!” Kelso yelped, looking affronted. Hyde looked between the two of them and cocked his head in thought. If it weren’t for the conversation he had with Donna over two months ago, he would have assumed Jackie’s statement was all for show.

Back in his time of origin, Jackie and Kelso were still friends despite there no longer being feelings between the two of them. In this timeline, Jackie treated Kelso with indifference unless prompted to act otherwise. In Jackie of 1976’s defense, Kelso wasn’t treating her with respect and was either rubbing other girls in her face or making lewd comments about her.

“Trade down?” Buddy moved between the two girls. “Laurie. You’re a college dropout dating a high school junior that still has his mother sew his name on his clothes. What leg do you have to stand on?”

Laurie’s face flushed red in embarrassment and she turned and fled, dragging Kelso away. They hadn’t even waited to be told when to meet back at the car.

“I still can’t believe you two are related, Eric.” Buddy pulled at the bottom hem of his dark brown leather jacket and stuffed his hands into the pockets.

They all turned at the sound of something hitting the Cruiser. Fez slapped his hands against the hatchback’s window and pressed his face against the glass. “Get me out!”

* * *

After freeing Fez from the trunk, the six of them strolled into the festival area. Jackie had originally agreed to the festival because she didn’t want to be home alone when her parents took off to Chicago for the weekend. The both of them had made the plans a few weeks back and ever since the moment they had made the plans up until the night before they had not brought up said plans with Jackie once.

They had never planned for her to be a part of their plans.

Jackie wouldn’t have minded if they had been going for one of their anniversaries, but that wasn’t the case. At some point as she got older, Jackie began to be left out of trips. Jackie didn’t notice much when they were bringing her souvenirs and gifts, but after her father was arrested and he was put behind bars she started to notice how little her parents were actually a part of her life before.

No one had ever bothered to ask her why her parents never called the Formans or the Pinciottis to check on her or to have the adults send her home. The Erdmans always called for Fez. Even though he was one of six, Michael’s parents always knew which house he was at and who he was with. Eric’s parents, while not rich or immeasurably beautiful, were always there with their support and love. Even with their bickering and their experimenting, Donna’s parents loved her and were there for her when she needed them, and it improved once Midge divorced Bob. Bob never stopped caring for Donna and Midge was always a safe place she could run to.

The only one who could understand the loneliness, was Steven. At age fifteen Jackie had loathed the connection. She hated the similarities of their situations. She was his opposite. While he didn’t try, she put the most effort. She cared what everyone thought of her, he couldn’t care less.

They ended up being two lonely kids that needed love and still they were completely different in how they approached that.

Even now Jackie was still chasing love somehow. She attached herself to Donna and to Buddy for that familial love she wasn’t getting and Fez was filling in the gaps so that her wall was strong and secure against the loneliness that overwhelmed her.

It should have been enough, but she still longed for the moments that it was just her and Steven. Jackie loved when they talked—no matter the subject. She enjoyed their easy banter. It was almost like having Steven still—the Steven before their breakup and before the events of the winter of 1978.

This Steven didn’t know she loved him and he never loved her. There would be no awkwardness as she found a different love, all while Jackie still had him as her friend.

She and Steven could have a new beginning and even though the pain was always present, Jackie could have a part of him—no matter how small.

* * *

Jackie continued to pout as everyone laughed at how some of the pumpkins for the large pumpkin competition were bigger than she was. Hyde had lost it when they found out that Jackie didn’t even weigh as much as the third place winner.

“What do you even do with a pumpkin that big?” She flapped her hands around in exasperation.

“Well, _you_ could have a pumpkin carriage, Jackie,” Donna teased her as they got servings of hot apple cider.

“I want a candy apple but I already spent most of the money I brought.” Fez’s face scrunched up into an ugly pout, but then his eyes widened in excitement. “Jackie! You should do that thing.”

“What thing?” Hyde asked, taking a sip of the hard cider he had snaked from one of the stands. Crowded festivals were always easy to steal from, because no one was paying attention.

“Oh my God.” Donna burst out laughing. “You guys have never seen it before, have you?”

Buddy shook his head and raised his hand. “I have. I still say she shouldn’t take things from strangers.”

“Yeah, but still.” Donna grabbed Jackie by her upper arm and dragged her away from Hyde. “You can’t stand next to Hyde though. It won’t work as well if you’re with a guy that looks like he could be your boyfriend.”

“I take offense to that,” Fez complained. “It always works when I’m hanging out with Jackie. Why wouldn’t strangers think _I_ was Jackie’s boyfriend?”

Buddy clapped his hands on Fez’s shoulders and rubbed them sympathetically. “Sorry, Fez. You guys just don’t pair up that way.”

Jackie yanked her arm free of Donna. “Hey! You need to be careful with me. I'm delicate.”

“Well, now I wanna see what this thing is.” Forman paused in pelting Hyde with pieces of caramel corn, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Fine!” Jackie straightened her clothes and fluffed her hair. She pulled a compact mirror out of her purse and applied a fresh coat of lip gloss before stashing it away. “Gimme five minutes.”

Jackie walked away from the group in the direction of one of the busier food stands. Because of her height, the crowd swallowed her up and they were unable to see her from where they stood by stacks of hay.

While they waited for Jackie to come back they all found something to do. Buddy pointed out different things and Fez told him what they would be called in his native tongue and Hyde had enough with Forman and his popcorn throwing and ended up dumping the paper bag over his head and forcing Forman to wear it as a hat.

“Hey, a little help here?” Jackie approached them holding two candy apples, a bag of kettle corn, some cooked strawberries with ice cream, and a hard cider.

“Sweet!” Buddy helped her by grabbing the strawberries and immediately eating a spoonful. Fez snatched the candy apples and giggled at his new treats.

“Was this all from one guy?” Donna took the kettle corn Jackie had handed to Forman and ripped the bag open.

“Nope. It was from the guys working at stands next to each other.”

“Wait. What was the thing?” Forman’s brows furrowed in confusion even as Donna fed him some popcorn. “Didn’t you just buy this stuff?”

“Nope.” Jackie drummed her fingers on the bottle of hard cider and smirked. “I didn’t spend a single penny.”

She took a long swig of her newly acquired cider as they waited for Forman to piece together everything. Hyde rolled his eyes at how dense his best friend was being. He was used to Jackie being given stuff for free. When they visited festivals together they would sometimes play a game of who could get the most stuff without paying for them. Jackie was even able to get them into the Six Flags for free by simply tying her shirt into a knot right under her chest and flashing her taut stomach.

“Okay if Jackie was able to use her demonic powers to get guys to just give her stuff why have we been paying for stuff all day?”

“No, _you_ have been paying for stuff all day.” Hyde drowned the rest of Jackie’s cider. It wasn’t particularly strong but Jackie was tiny and she didn’t drink enough to have any kind of tolerance. They didn’t need a repeat of Forman’s Christmas party of 1975 at the Kenosha Harvest Festival.

“You know how I always get a free doughnut when I go to the bakery?” Donna asked Forman who just nodded dumbly. “When I take Jackie with me, we get a Baker’s Dozen.”

“Which I just end up giving to Donna to give to her dad ‘cause I’m not eating all of those.”

“I don’t get what it is about this munchkin, but our shopping trips end up taking so long because people are always stopping to ask where she gets her hair done or to give her something.” Buddy put up his arms in self defense when Jackie took offense to the ‘munchkin’ comment and slapped his shoulder repeatedly.

They continued walking around, stopping when Fez wanted to get his face painted. At some point they finally found Kelso and Laurie necking behind the festival stage.

“Dude. Those two would make the _dumbest_ babies,” Buddy muttered under his breath so only Hyde could hear it and Hyde chuckled at the familiarity of the statement. He made the same comment to Kitty back in his own 1976 and she had gotten upset at the thought.

Despite himself, Hyde was actually enjoying the festival. The last time the group had tried to all go out together—at least in _his_ memory—was to the Packers’ game and the experience was terrible as he and Jackie weren’t able to spend time together amicably.

He watched as Jackie linked arms with Buddy and Fez and they did their own rendition of the walk from the Wizard of Oz and sang _We’re Off To See The Wizard_.

“Can we pretend that we don’t know them?” Forman laughed, wrapping an arm around Donna’s shoulders. “Just ditch them.”

“I would agree but we kind of need them to get home.” Hyde flashed him a sarcastic grin and clutched his belt buckle. He was kind of proud of the tidbit of information he was about to reveal. “You didn’t notice that Jackie picked your pocket when she handed out the snacks and took the keys to the Cruiser.”

“What!?” Forman pushed Donna away and slapped at all of his pockets. “Jackie!”

* * *

Sighing deeply, Jackie frowned at Michael as he got smacked in the face with the basketball during a pickup game with Donna, Eric, and Steven. Donna had jumped up and smacked the ball as Michael was ascending for a shot.

Of all of her friendships, she hadn't expected the one she would miss was the one with him.

In her own timeline, she and Michael no longer had any romantic feelings for each other but they could at least talk about the things they had in common like their interests in hair and clothing. No one else in their friend group apart from Fez loved to discuss those things and Jackie and Fez had such different tastes that they couldn’t always agree. Parts of their relationship back in 1979 were almost like how it was before sex entered the equation and they were like best friends.

Breaking up with him and not mourning the relationship this time around had changed their dynamic and how everyone around them responded to them. Michael was crueler this time about his hookups and his relationship with Laurie. The two of them had gotten into a fight about how he talked about their former sex life in front of their friends and Jackie had snapped and called him out for being a minute-man and poor at foreplay.

How blessed she was that she forced Michael to use condoms after her pregnancy scare and before he started sleeping with other girls.

As soon as Eric had said, “you blew up all over the launchpad!” it signaled the end of whatever friendliness could exist between the two of them.

Michael had tried to shift the blame onto her and tell her that it was good he was with Laurie who knew what she was doing and that’s when Buddy had tackled him and Steven and Donna needed to separate the two of them before the fight escalated.

It was a consequence of changing events that she hadn’t expected.

“I think that outlines all aspects of your custody arrangement.” Buddy smoothed out the paper he had been reading to Fez and Jackie. They were hanging at the patio and discussing what they were going to do with their trophy for the roller disco competition Jackie and Fez had won the night before.

“We’re still going to teach you to dance, Buddy.” Fez smiled encouragingly at him and Jackie nodded in agreement. Buddy didn’t care as much as they did for disco music and had confessed while helping Fez and Jackie practice that he wasn’t much of a dancer. It explained a lot why Buddy never went to school dances even with dates that would just be friends.

“Get a few drinks in me first and I’ll think about it.” Buddy smiled bashfully, nudging Fez’s shoulder with his own.

Jackie looked between the two and narrowed her eyes at their interaction. She was quite pleased at Buddy’s growing friendship with Fez. Buddy was proving to be a much better influence than Michael and Fez had really tamed the more perverted aspect of his personality. Buddy was more likely to give Fez proper information about American culture than the other boys as well.

“You’re not trying to get us to go to another disco, are you Jackie?” Donna rolled down the sleeves of her sweater and sat on the available seat.

“How many trips to hell are you planning?” Steven asked, waving Fez over to take Donna’s place.

“I just want to give Buddy some dance lessons,” Jackie explained. “I need a date to the Homecoming dance and I would prefer one that wouldn’t grope me the whole night. It’s not really optional for me to miss out on Homecoming because it’s connected to the Homecoming game and now that I’m a sophomore and can be part of the Homecoming Court, I’m a candidate for Duchess.”

“Why don’t you ask Hyde?” Buddy asked, groaning in discomfort. “He knows how to dance and he took you to the prom last year.”

Steven paused the basketball game and pointed a finger threateningly in their direction. “I’m not spending my night with a bunch of jockstraps.”

“Oh?” Donna raised a brow in intrigue. “But would you consider going with Jackie if that weren’t the case?”

Jackie nudged Donna in the ribs with her elbow. Donna frowned at her and nudged her back. She really needed to talk to the lumberjack. Donna kept making comments that were beginning to make Jackie feel uneasy.

Steven paused for a moment, just staring at them through his sunglasses, and finally said, “If she asked nicely.”

“Hyde!” Eric and Michael cried out in distaste.

“She’s my friend and it would be a favor so that some perv isn’t pawing at her for a couple of hours. But it’s Homecoming so, no.”

He turned back to the game and the boys picked up where they left off before the interruption from Buddy. Jackie crossed her arms in front of her chest and hugged herself. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Donna smirking at her.

“What?”

“I think it’s cute that you two are friends.” Donna used a cutesy voice and waved her hands around, dancing in her seat. “ABBA meets Zeppelin. What a horrifying concept.”

“You just said we were cute.”

“Doesn’t stop it from being creepy and unnatural.” Donna mock shivered in disgust, but the smile stayed on her face.

“Speaking of creepy and unnatural,” Buddy cut into the conversation. “There’s a barn party on Halloween if you guys are interested. Costumes are highly encouraged.”

Buddy had already invited Jackie and she had picked out her costume right away. He had teased her about how many comments she was going to get about guys wanting to be her Big Bad Wolf, but Jackie was satisfied with her choice.

“Well, if there’s a keg you just know those morons will be there.” Donna nodded her chin in the direction of the boys playing. “And a party could be fun. We didn’t really have anything to do last year and we ended up breaking into Old Maine.”

“Why didn’t you just go to one of the parties?” Buddy frowned and cocked his head to the side as he turned his attention toward Jackie. “I know _you_ were definitely invited to some.”

That statement caught not only Donna’s attention, but the guys who had stopped playing and were making their way to the basement. Jackie squirmed under everyone’s scrutiny and finally explained herself.

“I was invited by some guys, but I was dating Michael. So why would I want to go to a party where guys would be hitting on me if I had a boyfriend at the time?”

Jackie had always tried her best to make sure Michael never got jealous. Despite being bossy and making demands of him, she did her best to be a good girlfriend and one of those things was to make sure he didn’t get insecure about other guys while they were together. It was one of those good girlfriend lies she never felt bad about.

She didn’t have the same problem when she dated Steven, but guys weren’t going to try and hit on her when her boyfriend could knock them out cold without breaking a sweat. It didn’t stop _Michael_ from hitting on her, but he also thought he was invincible because he kept bouncing back.

“Hey. We might not have partied that night, but we did learn a lot.” Hyde smiled slyly at Jackie and her face drained of color. She knew exactly what he was referring to.

“Steven, don’t you dare━”

“Isn’t that right, Beulah?”

Jackie shrieked and jumped out of her seat. She chased Steven down the stone steps as he ran from her. Their friends could be heard laughing as they followed them to the basement.

* * *

Hyde pulled on his favorite Led Zeppelin shirt and smoothed down the front of it. There were lots of his band shirts missing due to them belonging to tours that haven’t happened yet, but the shirt that still threw him off when he saw it, was his favorite shirt. Back in 1979, Jackie was still in possession of it and he hadn’t worn it in over a year and a half.

Sometimes when he laid in his cot, sparking up a joint on his own, he wondered how much of Jackie holding onto his shirt was her holding onto their relationship and how much of it was her refusing to give back anything he gave her solely out of spite. She had admitted to pawning a necklace Kelso had given her to buy the boots she wore on their first date when they became a thing, but the shirt had more sentimental value.

“Hey.” Forman knocked on the vent blocking the door of Hyde’s bedroom. “Can you use the Camino tonight and pick up Fez?”

Hyde paused in pulling his belt through his belt loops and gave Forman a quizzical look. “Why the hell would I do that if the Cruiser has more passenger space?”

“Because I want to be able to get some alone time with Donna if the party is a bust.”

“And what if I needed my Camino? There’s a much higher chance of me getting lucky tonight than you.” Bullshit, but it was bullshit that would have been true before and it still burned Forman, especially because he didn’t know Hyde wasn’t having sex.

“Ha. You’re so funny.” Forman glared at him.

Hyde shouldn’t have been able to remember when his friend was going to lose his virginity but Donna had finally decided the time was right for her during her parents’ second wedding which made it hard for the occasion to be forgotten. If that was one of the events that stayed the same, Forman still had weeks to go for that particular event.

“Do you want a Who-Are-You-Kidding condom?” Hyde taunted him as he finished dressing up. He grabbed his dark blue shirt jacket. It was thin enough to feel more like a shirt but just enough for an autumn day. He was probably going to regret his decision come night time, but he would have alcohol in his system so he wouldn’t give a fuck.

“You’re hysterical!” Forman shouted back sarcastically as he left the room.

Hyde laughed to himself as he grabbed his wallet and pre-rolled some joints for the party and packed them in his half empty cigarette pack. He looked at the box of condoms in his dresser drawer and cringed at its untouched state. They had been there since before he found himself back in time and he hadn’t gotten rid of them just in case one of the guys tried rifling through his room. He didn’t want to have to explain anything if they found anything off about him or his stuff.

He fingered the bead resting against his throat from his necklace. It had been part of the accessories that he always wore for the longest time. It wasn’t until Jackie had kissed him in places lower than his face that he removed the necklace. It got in the way when she kissed and sucked on his neck and she had been the only girl worth making the sacrifice of cutting it off.

Jackie Burkhart was a disease. She spread her love through you like miasma and had it coursing through your veins and infecting different parts of you. 1976 Jackie didn’t even know how badly she affected him and she was still making him feel all kinds of stupid.

This is exactly why he didn’t do the love thing. It made him want things and make him think he deserved them, was worthy of them, and then it was all just snatched away. He was waiting for something, _anything_ , that would make him stop feeling the way he did for the bossy little loudmouth. Waiting for her to say or do something that would turn him off.

The fault in his waiting game was that he knew Jackie better than he should. He knew about her insecurities and her bolster and how smart she really was. He knew all about her eccentricities and how charming she actually was.

Being just her friend was killing him and Hyde was waiting and waiting for death to come. Because surely it would arrive before he stopped loving Jackie Burkhart.

* * *

The music drummed in her chest until she could no longer differentiate the bass from her heartbeat. She was feeling too warm for her skin and there was an itch running along her limbs from the adrenaline coursing through her.

Normally Jackie wasn’t a drinker. Her first real drink that wasn’t spiked punch had been with Steven. It had actually been during the summer they had started their fling. It was amazing how safe she felt letting go with him; how whether it was pot or alcohol, her first times were under his watch and even when his blue eyes danced with amusement, there was nowhere else she felt safer. But here she was at a senior at Point Place High, Patrick Stevenson’s, barn party drinking anyway.

Buddy had left her side when Fez and Steven showed up to the party. She remained sitting on a cube of hay, the straw scratching at her bare legs. It was the only regret she had about her Little Red Riding Hood costume. It left her too exposed so she was either cold or hay was always brushing up against her limbs.

She knew drinking was a bad idea. Her doubt chafed against her ribs and it made her scared of seeing Steven in a setting where he could get drunk or high with any girl that caught his eye. Jackie had been so sure that she could handle just being friends with him and it had been easy when it was just them and their friends.

In school she distracted herself with class and doing better than she had her sophomore year when she let being with Michael drop some of her grades from As to Cs. She focused on work and her studies and cheer and told herself that it was for her future. Jackie tried convincing herself that one day her feelings would dissipate and she would have a wonderful future even if Steven wasn’t a part of it in the role she originally wanted him to be.

She shut her ears to any possible rumors floating about Steven in the girls’ locker room. She avoided seniors like Kat Peterson, Valerie Tannenmbaum, and Lacey Carr when they chatted at practice.

Jackie couldn’t help but compare herself to those girls. They were mostly blonde and curvy and their dreams didn’t involve scruffy orphan boys with tender smiles and soothing words. They wanted someone that could get the job done and be discreet and would give them a kiss on the cheek goodbye but didn’t care if they got dressed and bailed before they had to bother with anything other than small talk.

And she was just like them, just another notch on Steven Hyde’s belt. The love was gone and Jackie didn’t know what she did to lose it. Maybe she never really had it all along.

Beer was disgusting and had none of the class of champagne, but Jackie’s gulps were large and they hurt as she swallowed them down. She was kidding herself when she told herself that she could be Steven’s friend.

“Jackie?” She looked up to Spock waving his hand in front of her face. Buddy had returned with Fez dressed as Batman and Steven in his casual clothes.

“We had to go back to the Erdmans’ to get Fez’s costume from last year because he showed up to the Formans dressed as Dr. Frank-N-Furter,” Steven explained their lateness. “Kelso is off with Laurie at some college party and I have no clue where Donna and Forman are. They decided to drive a separate car and I’m sure they’re lost.”

Jackie looked him up and down and she lost the warmth that had been building up inside of her from all of the beer she had been consuming. Whatever higher power had decided to send her back in time had decided that she had been living too easily and too free for their taste.

Of all things Steven could have worn to the party, he just had to wear _her_ shirt. It was her shirt and it was under the shirt jacket he wore on their Veterans Day date that he had let her wear because she decided being cute was more important than being warm in the middle of November. She was Midwestern born and bred and winter was in her bones, but that had been stupid even for her lovesick self.

“I need another drink,” Jackie croaked, her voice getting caught on the last word. She stood up from her seat and sped away, not turning back at the sound of her friends calling after her.

The music continued to drum against her ribs but now her heartbeat was easy to pick apart from the bass as it screamed at her over and over again a two syllable word.

 _StevenStevenStevenSteven_.

* * *

He should have been drinking. Fez and Buddy were tossing back beers and enjoying the noise and the mayhem and he should have been doing the same.

So why was Hyde looking for a tiny brunette in a red hooded cape?

It was that look on her face when they had found her sitting all by herself in her short dress, a beer in her hand. She looked so lost and then she was gone, disappearing into the crowd of teenagers.

He should have let Fez or Buddy go after her. He was her new best friend, not Hyde.

Wiping a hand down his face, Hyde gritted his teeth and changed direction. If Jackie was going to be a brat then all the power to her but he wasn’t going to get involved. He had been standing right in front of her and available for whatever was going on with her and she just took off. Kicking at hay on the ground, Hyde decided to climb up to the rafters and hole up in a corner where he could smoke alone.

He had barely lit the end of his joint when he heard his name slurred but coming from a voice he would recognize anywhere.

“Steven?”

Hay fell onto his curls and Jackie slid down from her spot on top of the pile. Her dress rode up her leg showing off more of her thighs than she should and her cape fell over her head.

Hyde took mercy on her and helped her disentangle from her cape and straightened up her skirt. “How did you get up here?”

“I just wanted to get away from everyone.” Jackie sidled up next to him and plucked the joint from between his lips and took a pull of her own.

“You’re going to end up cross faded,” Hyde warned her. Jackie was obviously drunk and she didn’t need to be anymore inebriated. She took another pull without passing it back. “I should charge you like I do Forman. He’s got a job now and can contribute and so should you.”

“Please,” Jackie scoffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder and batting her eyelashes at him. Crawling closer to him, she lowered her voice so it was nice and smoky. “Pretty girls never pay.”

“No,” Hyde snatched his joint back and stretched his legs out in front of him, “they just get a discount.”

With Forman now working as a Pricemart stock boy and Leo as their connection, their stash was increasing in size. It was usually more than they needed and Steven of 1976 through 1977 had sometimes shared some of it with girls, hotboxing their cars and shotgunning in their rooms while mom and dad were away. If he liked them enough, he didn’t mind letting them slide without fully paying for their participation.

It had never been like that with Jackie. Sometimes just being in her presence was like the moment when he came down from a high. He was still tethered to the weed’s hold on him but he was alert to everything around him.

Alert and focused on Jackie and the way she made his stomach flutter in ways that made him uncomfortable to admit to feeling.

“Why did you take off?” Hyde asked her, passing back the joint. He would allow her one last drag before cutting her off. It wouldn’t do to let her get so sloppy that she couldn’t remove her makeup and do her nightly routine. She obviously was already feeling bad about something and didn’t need to wake up with her mascara lumped around her eyes and her other face paints all over her silk pillow cases.

Jackie opened her mouth to reply to the question but a high pitched moaning sound cut her off. Her eyes went wide and she slapped her hand over her mouth. Hyde laughed when the moans continued and were accompanied with low grunts. The two of them had accidentally stumbled upon an amorous couple that seeked the privacy of the hay in the rafters.

If the situation had been different, Hyde would probably have been one half of a couple enjoying a bed of hay. Preferably with Little Red Riding Hood, who was sitting close enough that she was practically in his lap.

Her dress left a world of possibilities with its easy access.

“We should go.” Hyde took hold of Jackie’s hands and led her away from the hidden couple. He went down the ladder first so that he could catch Jackie in case she stumbled on the way down. “Wanna get out of here?”

Jackie blinked up at him with her big brown eyes and then nodded slowly. Not caring about whoever was watching, Hyde intertwined his fingers with Jackie’s and pulled her toward the entrance of the barn and into the cold October night.

He led her to the Camino and helped her hop into the flatbed before pulling himself up and joining her. They scooted all the way back so they could rest against the cab of the truck. They sat there in silence as Hyde finished smoking a second one of his prerolls.

“Are you gonna tell me what’s up?” He finally spoke up. Jackie shook her head and curled into his side.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” she tucked into his side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, curling into his warmth.

“Okay…” Hyde drawled, unsure of what to make of her silence and the way she seeked his physical comfort after she had run away from him earlier.

“Can we just sit here like this?”

Instead of answering, Hyde tightened his hold on Jackie, giving her a reassuring squeeze. It would have been easier to find Buddy and Fez to take care of whatever emotional episode Jackie was having. Easier, but not something his stupid heart would allow.

This was his place, no one else’s, and he was reclaiming it.

Staring at the clouds as they drifted across the night sky, hiding and revealing different sets of stars, Hyde decided there was one more conscious change to the timeline he had to make. As Jackie curled up even more, her head drooping against his chest, Hyde decided he wasn’t going to do what his sixteen year old self did weeks before he turned seventeen. Something his nineteen year old self fucked up.

There was no use denying it and as _I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend_ by The Ramones played from the barn as a hit of irony from the universe, Hyde finally figured out what the correct answer to Jackie’s question had been back in 1979.

It was too bad a different Ramones song wasn’t available for the occasion, because 1978 was calling across the years reminding him that all he wanted was Jackie around for a long time and that he had never felt the way he did about anyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> small history lesson! Anyone remember when Jackie told Donna she used to have a penpal from Nicaragua but they stopped writing after the Hurricane hit? (Laurie Moves Out I believe, when she starts suspecting Kelso of cheating on her with Laurie)
> 
> In 1974 there was a Hurricane that hit Nicaragua: Hurricane Fifi (later renamed Orlene apparently). I don’t know much about it but I thought it was interesting that the show had dropped some of that info. This also would mean that Jackie had a penpal from another country sometime when she was in middle school (and maybe earlier in elementary school) and that’s just cute.
> 
> Jackie is such an odd character because even though she likes to talk a lot she doesn’t really share that much that makes the other characters see her as anything but vapid or the delivery just makes her appear vapid. She feels like she would be one of those casually eccentric people. She drops info that is so odd that no one follows up on it, like you would think Donna would be interested in Jackie having a penpal from a different country━especially with all of her comments about foreigners.
> 
> Like I know it's a sitcom but T7S dropped the ball a lot.
> 
> One of my least favorite retcons is Jackie bonding with Red over auto mechanics and being excited about it and that just disappearing. It was one of those eccentricities that I loved for her and I wish they did more with it in the show. Really didn’t like her complaining about grease when she had once been covered head to toe with it and was content. My first AU idea when I started playing around with AUs and the idea of writing actually involved Jackie wanting to have been the one working at the muffler shop.
> 
> (Always found it weird that Jackie didn’t go get another job in the show after her dad was arrested—you would think she would have to go get one)
> 
> I have some knowledge of cars but it’s still pretty limited so if you see anything that looks weird I’m sorry lol I try to look up as much as possible.
> 
> Slut shaming and body shaming characters always makes me feel weird and bad, but it’s canon typical and Laurie usually got those comments when she disrupted the gang’s lives somehow or messed with them and insulted them.
> 
> Hyde and Jackie are accidentally becoming the mom and dad friends of the group. Not in the lame way that Donna and Eric were “Mom and Dad”, but because they are the more mature ones now due to the fact they are actually 18 and 19 compared to the 16 and 17 of everyone else (except Kelso) and have more life experiences. Even though Hyde is a big brother figure already, it only makes sense that Jackie despite physically being the youngest would take on an older sister role even if she doesn’t realize that.
> 
> Time is so fucked up in T7S. Like I gotta just pretend that the football season was completely different for the sake of the plot. I mean the show had the Packers win but the real life game ended with their loss….and also happened in early Dec of 1979...which makes no sense considering the plot...so we’re going to ignore so much...
> 
> I worried a bit about introducing the Bud part but the truth is...when I was 20 (just like Hyde was 20 in the show) I found out my father wasn't actually my father. He's my stepdad and even though we have had lots of issues, he at least stuck around. My bio dad gave up his parental rights and said he would meet me if I wanted to and it's been 7 years since I found out and I'm still debating if I even want to. I think if he were closer and it were more convenient and I didn't run the risk of putting my feelings on the line it would make it all easier.  
> So Hyde kind of had that chance here. Just to see if things would have been different depending on just a change of dialogue but without focusing on rehashing episodes so much.
> 
> So I don't dislike Kelso, the character is funny as hell, but it was always weird how he was still friends with everyone (Fez too tbh). Like I get they live in a small town and have been friends since they were in first grade and I've definitely been in situations where friendships survived throughout school but not afterward because you saw the same people everyday and you had something connecting you like school or other friends, but he definitely seems like a guy that everyone would have drifted away from during high school.  
> I sometimes wonder if that's why Eric and Donna were manipulated in the story line to flip out when they found out about Jackie and Hyde after everything Kelso had done (the cheating which they hid, dating Laurie thus also breaking the guy code, groping Donna, etc), so that Kelso wouldn't be dropped from the friend group when he reacted badly despite him having run away to Cali. Nothing really tied him to the group except for stuff we have to speculate about like how he and Hyde must have been closer to each other before Kelso dated Jackie.


	5. you and me and all of our friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to get too obvious for comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Just like the chapter title states, there is some focus on JH's friends in here. As much as I would love to write lots of JH fluff, they're back in time and growing up again--their friends more than them and their friends are a big part of their lives.
> 
> This chapter somehow ended up being longer than the last one when I originally thought it would be shorter. It covers November 1976 but runs a bit into the first week of December.
> 
> I can't wait until next chapter. I have a lot of good stuff (and sad stuff) planned and I'm going to work on it as soon as possible. I might need to slow down my updates and focus on some of my SasuSaku fics.

_November 1976_

“No, Fez.” Jackie stopped his actions. “You have to pull a little tighter or the braid just falls apart.”

“Why are we using _my_ hair again?” Donna winced as Fez ran his fingers through her hair and detangled the braid he was attempting.

Jackie had been braiding Donna’s hair again as everyone was watching television and Fez who had been bored with the rerun decided that he wanted to learn the style that Jackie was attempting.

“I can’t watch what Fez is doing if he braids my hair, duh.” Jackie shook her head and slapped Fez’s hand before he could yank at Donna’s scalp. “Not too tight! You’ll pull her hair out and if Donna ends up with bald spots, I’ll crush your fingers.” Jackie shook her head and hip checked Fez to push him out of her way. “Just watch me do it one more time.”

Dejected, Fez moved back to the lawn chair and plopped down. “So this hairstyle is French?”

“No, Fez.” Jackie brushed Donna’s hair again to get rid of the tangles Fez had caused. “It’s a misnomer, but we call it that now because it’s been used for years. Almost anything is called French when it’s considered fancy.”

“Then explain french fries.” Steven leaned back in his seat to look over at her. He grinned, waiting for her response. Jackie simply stuck her tongue at him and averted her gaze back to Donna’s head.

It had been two weeks since the night of the barn party and Jackie still couldn’t look Steven in the eye. She had woken up Sunday morning with a hangover and wanted to stay in bed all day. When Fez called her to ask if she wanted to go trick-or-treating with him she told him she was told by her parents to stay home because it was a school night, just in case he had invited Steven along. Even if he wasn’t going to be ringing doorbells for candy, Steven usually chaperoned Fez to make sure nothing happened to him.

“Why do you let Jackie mess with your hair?” Eric had turned sideways in his seat on the couch to watch the three of them, amused by all of the attention on Donna’s head. Whenever they were just hanging out in the basement Jackie would do something with Donna’s hair just to pass the time. Donna didn’t always keep the style but as long as she wasn’t doing anything she let Jackie braid it or tie it up.

Donna closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest, making sure to keep her head steady. “As long as heat isn't involved, it’s actually quite relaxing.”

“Oh, I _will_ use hot rollers on your hair one day.”

“That will happen the day you say yes to a date with your manager.”

Jackie gasped, tugging a little tighter on Donna’s braid than necessary. “Never!”

Todd had been fawning over her every shift and dropping hints about his affection for her making Jackie uncomfortable. She had confided in Donna because she wanted advice on how to let Todd down easy without losing her job or getting a bad reference for her next job. No matter how Jackie tried to state it, Buddy, Fez, and Donna cringed and told her that she was going to end up hurting his feelings.

Todd was a good friend during the time that Michael had been neglecting her, but it wasn’t true friendship because he was only doing all of the things he was doing to try and steal her away. Todd was like having another Fez who was only kind because he wanted something from her. It had slowed down when she started dating Steven, but it still hurt a bit.

She hadn’t cared at first, it just meant that she was beautiful and of course they would want someone as beautiful as her. But it kept happening over and over again with different guys. They would be nice to her until she told them no. Donna had sat her down and explained to her why it had started to make her feel gross. She explained to Jackie that not all attention was good attention and that she deserved to be treated like a person with feelings and not just a pretty face and a warm spot between her legs.

Michael hadn’t liked when she started to assert herself when it came to her bodily autonomy after that discussion with Donna. Jackie was sure that was one of the fights he considered a “break” and had gone to cheat on her.

“I’m just going to have to suck it up for a few more weeks while I find another job and then tell him that my winter cheer schedule conflicts with working at the Cheese Palace.”

“Nah. I think he’ll just try and fix your schedule so you wouldn’t have to quit,” Eric warned her. He laughed at her misery but his eyes were still soft in understanding. “The cheese guy is pretty persistent.”

“Why don’t you try and see if the muffler shop will hire you?” Donna suggested, grabbing a magazine from the end table. “You know your way around cars.”

“I’m sixteen and a girl, Donna.” Jackie took a seat on the deep freeze and rested her cheek on her fist. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. Donna should have understood right away that her gender and age would be an issue. “I’m not exactly the ideal candidate.”

_And I’m pretty sure they can’t afford anymore employees._

The muffler shop would be closing down in a couple of years and Red Forman would end up buying it. Steven had worked with him for a while and Jackie had been slightly jealous, but she had learned her lesson about jobs and boyfriends from when Michael had become a model. It didn’t help that her mother didn’t approve of Jackie’s hobby. She had already lost one parent, she didn’t want to get into a fight over auto mechanics with the only one she had left.

She had tried to convince herself that it was just a stupid hobby. She had more fabulous career goals than being a grease monkey and it wasn’t worth ruining her second chance with her mom.

Donna looked as if she wanted to respond when the sound of Red’s shouting came from the door to the kitchen.

“Eric! Come help your mother!”

Eric rolled his eyes and swung his legs over the back of the couch. “Every year we have this barbecue after the Veterans Day Parade. You would think my parents would learn that barbecues are summer events.”

“Ugh,” Jackie groaned under her breath. The only good thing about the holiday was that there would be no Chip hanging around.

In the original Veterans Day of 1976, Jackie had recruited Chip Reese to make Steven jealous. She had to suffer through his come ons and had busied herself flipping burgers for Red just so she didn’t have to spend too much time alone with him.

“Speaking of barbecues,” Donna closed her magazine and stood up from the couch, stretching her arms in front of her, “I have to go help my dad with his. I don’t know why he wanted to throw one this year. It’s always been Red’s thing.”

Jackie’s breath hitched. Veterans Day was the day everyone found out about Bargain Bob’s closing and Bob going bankrupt. She and Steven hadn’t found out until the following day because they had been on their date when the Formans moved the barbecue over to the Pinciottis’ yard.

“Wanna come help me set up?” Donna asked her, hitching a thumb toward the basement door. “My dad bought all of these decorations for the yard.”

“Sure. Not like I have anything else to do.”

It was either help Donna or sit around with Steven and Fez. And knowing Fez, he would take off to goof off with Michael as soon as the latter came over for the barbecue. That would leave Jackie alone with Steven and she just couldn’t handle that.

He was at least wearing his Black Sabbath shirt under an open red flannel shirt instead of what he had worn in Jackie’s Veterans Day of 1976. She was still reeling from seeing him in her shirt at the party.

The stupid party.

Jackie was mortified over her behavior at the barn party. She had been so sloppy and had thrown herself at Steven. She may as well have crawled into his lap and started making out with him.

Steven was her friend and she had probably made him uncomfortable. He was being his usual noble self and made sure she was safe and got home and she couldn’t stop snuggling with him.

“This much red, white, and blue is giving me a headache.” Jackie frowned at the explosion of the three colors that was the Pinciottis’ backyard. She handed Donna some more star cutouts to place on the fence.

Donna stretched and stuck the star up high where Jackie wouldn’t have been able to reach. “Yeah, we don’t usually decorate for Veterans Day.”

Jackie busied herself carrying a bunch of star-spangled flag banners to the opposite side of the yard when Bob came out to talk to Midge who was setting up food outside. She heard Donna gasp out in shock and then when she looked up her friend was no longer in the backyard.

Jackie used the back gate to exit the yard and headed up the Formans’ driveway. She was met with the sight of Donna and Eric shouting at each other and knew that Donna had just found out about her dad’s bankruptcy.

Donna shouted some nonsense about an “ass-tree” and rushed back to her backyard. Before Jackie could follow her, Red had pushed her toward the Formans’ yard and asked her to man the grill while he ran off to get more supplies.

“Red trusts you with the grill?”

Jackie looked up from the grill and found Steven standing by her, a beer in his hand. He had been sitting on a patio chair when Donna had blown up on Eric.

She averted her gaze and flipped over a burger. Jackie thought that spending time with the Pinciottis at their barbecue would limit her time with him, but fate had a funny way of working. “I’m the only one that’s not useless, remember?”

“So you can’t bake a pie but you can grill?”

“I’m better at handling meat.”

Steven had chosen the wrong moment to take a swig of beer and started choking as he burst into laughter. He coughed in between bouts of laughter and he clapped a hand on Jackie’s shoulder as he struggled to hold himself up.

He gave her a lascivious grin and his eyebrows rose above his sunglasses. “Wouldn’t mind a demonstration of that.” 

“Uh!” Jackie slapped his chest with the back of her hand, heat traveling up her face. “Don’t be disgusting. There are a lot of people here and they can hear you, Steven.”

“Hey,” he raised his hands up in defense, “that was right there and way too easy to be left alone.”

“Well, _anyway_ ,” Jackie shot him a sharp glare and then returned to the burgers and hot dogs, “I’m better at cooking than baking. Like much, much better. As long as it doesn’t involve eggs, mayonnaise, or hot peppers. I’m pretty decent at cold prepped food.”

“Considering your baking skills, that’s not saying much.”

“Shut up!” Jackie tried to keep the frown on her face, but she couldn’t stop the smile from breaking. Steven wasn’t wrong about her kitchen skills being poor, but she was able to make some things. She had in fact made lunch often for him to take to work when he worked for W.B. and sometimes she would swing by Grooves with something for him to eat.

Back in 1978 when Steven was busy working in the office during weekdays, Jackie had a lot of free time after school and she would spend some of that time with Kitty and learning how to cook and bake. Baking still escaped her, even when she wore gloves to touch eggs, but she was improving little by little when it came to cooking. She had really liked the idea of taking care of Steven.

“What’s wrong with mayo?”

“It’s so fattening! And white.” Jackie shuddered. “I’m not good with white foods. And besides you can substitute olive oil for mayonnaise in tons of recipes.”

Olive oil is what she had used to make chicken salad sandwiches for some of Steven’s lunches. Kitty had gotten irritated with her because she kept refusing to use mayonnaise and insisted that olive oil was better because of all of the health benefits. Jackie had researched different diets for most of her teen years in order to stay trim and fit and she refused to back down.

Jackie had been giddy at the idea of keeping Steven healthy through improved eating habits. She had fantasized about him coming home to her and that their kitchen would be as warm and inviting as the Formans’ kitchen. Not that it had mattered in the end. She was dreaming of a future that Steven didn’t want to be a part of.

“I told you how I was a ballerina, right? And I’m a cheerleader. I have to be careful about what I eat and part of knowing what you’re putting in your body is knowing how your meals are prepared and what’s in them.”

“You eat fries.” Steven crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked down at her with a knowing smile. “And I’ve definitely seen you eat some junk food.”

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Of course I do. I crave it just like any other teenager. That’s what cheat meals are for. Potatoes are my cheat carb. That and Hawaiian style pizza.”

Back in the Veterans Day of 1976 that Jackie and Steven had gone on a date, they had ended up getting a pizza. The both of them hadn’t eaten at the barbecue and they decided on carry-out. When Steven had asked her if she had a preference he just stared at her when she told him what was her favorite kind. They ended up with a half Meat Lovers and half Hawaiian and she insisted he try pineapple on his pizza.

He refused to directly acknowledge it was a good topping and just shrugged and said, _“Pizza is pizza. It’s all good.”_

It was still a better reaction than she had ever gotten from Michael who always made a disgusted face when she wanted pineapple.

“What about cheeseburgers?”

Jackie almost dropped the tongs at his question. It was an innocent question, but it reminded her too much of her Steven’s tinfoil comment. His intonation was even the same.

“They’re alright,” Jackie mumbled as she transferred patties onto waiting buns.

“Hey Jackie━”

A cough interrupted Steven and they both turned at the sound. Buddy was standing in the yard, holding two gift bags for wine.

“Don’t mean to interrupt, but I’ve been standing here for all of that and you guys didn’t even notice I was here.” He held up the bags that were hanging on his arm. “My mom sent me with wine for the Formans and Pinciottis.”

“Yeah, I’ll help you find them.” Jackie handed Steven the tongs and grabbed Buddy’s free arm, pulling him away from the grill.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Buddy pulled his arm away and grabbed Jackie’s wrist and dragged her into the garage and out the back door that led to the small alley between the houses. Before Jackie could pull away and enter the Pinciottis’ backyard through their open gate, Buddy turned and blocked the entrance.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

Buddy shot her an unimpressed look and crossed his arms in front of his chest, the wine bottles clinking together because of the action. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“Well, clearly I don’t.”

“Hey.” Donna walked up the alley carrying a shopping bag. “What’s going on with you guys?”

“Nothing.” Jackie stuffed her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. “Nothing at all.”

“Jackie’s totally flirting with a guy.”

“Bitch!” Jackie slapped Buddy on his shoulder. She was relieved he didn’t name whom she was talking to. “That was _so_ not flirting. We were talking about food. That would only be considered flirting if Donna were involved.”

“Don’t make me step on you, Jackie.” Donna pointed a finger threateningly at Jackie. “I’m pretty sure I could.”

“You were five seconds away from being asked out.”

“Wait, now I really wanna know.” Donna crept closer, a curious smile on her face. “Come on. Gossip with me. You two always want me to do that.”

Jackie looked back and forth between Donna and Buddy. “Oh no.”

“I have to know everything about the varsity squad and who is sleeping with who but you won’t tell me who is trying to ask Jackie out?”

Jackie shot a death glare at Buddy, daring him to reveal anything to Donna. She didn’t need to hear about how she wasn’t Steven’s type or that he was Michael’s best friend.

She silently pleaded with Buddy to stay quiet, giving him her signature pout. If he said anything about her and Steven’s innocent conversation being anything but, she would just have to kick him in the shins.

Buddy rolled his eyes and shook his head, taking a step away from Jackie.

“I may have over exaggerated about the date thing. But I’m pretty sure _someone_ likes someone else and I had to stop it. It was a bad idea.”

He didn’t have to tell her that. Jackie _knew_ it was a bad idea. She couldn’t help falling into the pattern of talking to Steven, of curling next to him and breathing in the combination of Old Spice, fabric softener, weed and tobacco, and peppermint smell of his that was just so wonderful.

Steven was just being who he was, which was a secret softie and caring for his friends and Jackie was falling into the trap of it again. It was no wonder her sixteen year old self had become so delusional and started fantasizing about him as her knight in shining armor.

Donna groaned and slapped her forehead. “Oh God. Jackie, this better not be about Kelso. I will have you committed. You’re supposed to be over him!”

“It’s not about Michael!”

“What’s not about Michael?”

Oh, great. Of all days for Michael to use the alley to travel from his house to the Formans’ it had to be today of all days when Jackie was standing there. It was his preferred route to take because it was a shortcut so Jackie should have expected him to stroll by at any moment.

If Michael knew about her feelings for Steven, then everyone would know about them. He would go picking a fight he had no reason for starting in the first place and then her friendship with Steven would be over.

When she had her crush on him back in her own 1976, he had hated every moment of it. Jackie was so embarrassed when she looked back on it about how she had acted. Steven would remind her of it sometimes to tease her and she would get so angry and embarrassed she would leave the basement and not return for a full day.

Their relationship in this 1976 wasn’t anything like the way it was back when she was first sixteen, but she didn’t doubt that it would make things awkward. Jackie could only hope he didn’t recite another hurtful haiku if he ever found out she loved him.

“Nothing’s ever about you, so why don’t you move along.”

“Damn, Jackie!” Michael’s face twisted into a pout. “You don’t have to be rude, God!”

He stomped off towards the Formans’ garage, his limbs awkwardly flailing in his low mood.

“Well, I gotta get these sparklers to my dad.” Donna gestured to the bag she was carrying. “Eric and his dad are going down!”

Jackie and Buddy watched as she stormed back into her yard and began to talk animatedly to her father. Jackie was going to use the distraction to make her escape, but Buddy was one step ahead of her.

“I’m still in shock that you and Hyde are able to talk about anything.”

It wasn’t the first time that Buddy had brought it up. It started with Michaels comments about them sitting together and how he didn’t understand how they were friends now. He had brought up Steven’s past offenses of demanding to know when Jackie and Michael would break up and the things he had said behind her back and to her face.

Buddy hadn’t been that shocked that Steven had said any of the insults that he had, but he couldn’t comprehend why Jackie would want to hang out with him or why Steven had done something as nice as take her to Prom. Jackie had to explain the complexities of her and Steven’s relationship without giving too much away. It was just part of the group’s dynamic that they all insulted each other or took pleasure in the small miseries. It was what they did when the hurt was too large to quantify that brought them all together, especially for Jackie and Steven.

Buddy gasped, realization dawning on his face. “Oh, Jackie, hon...no.”

“What?”

“You can’t like Hyde, Jackie. You just can’t.” Buddy shook his head and held Jackie’s hands in his. “I’ll do anything to put a stop to it. Hell, I will let you dress me up and drag me to a disco every weekend until my birthday. That’s _three_ months worth of watching me humiliate myself.”

“I know you and Steven have this weird love-hate thing going on, but why are you so against it?” Jackie didn’t bother removing her hands from Buddy’s hold. He had smooth hands and they were warm compared to the briskness of the afternoon. “I mean, _if_ ━a big if━I liked him, so what?”

“Besides the obvious hate for everything the other loves?” Buddy raised a brow at her in question, but Jackie wouldn’t back down. “If you were the kind of girl that didn’t care about relationships and true love, I would say go for it. Go ride him like a hoppity-hop. It would be an improvement from Kelso from what I’ve heard.”

He shuddered in disgust and shook his head as if to clear himself of the thoughts. Jackie had to smile at his actions. Buddy was just trying to look out for her and he had good reason to.

Buddy was the confidant that Jackie needed. Donna was amazing in her own way, but she was too close to Steven and had been making her own comments and observations of their friendship. Jackie could tell Buddy about all of her dreams and her fantasies and he wouldn’t look at her with judgement, because he had his own.

They were the rich kids of the gang and Jackie knew that sometimes their friends looked at them and thought there was no way for them to want for more or how dare they be dissatisfied with their lot in life━more so her than Buddy considering he had the whole liking the same gender thing going for him that had some of them feel for him.

“You’re my best friend,” Buddy leaned in, his voice soft, “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

Jackie smiled softly at him. He had gotten so attached to her in a way she had to admit to herself that she hadn’t understood why at first. There was a part of her that figured everyone liked her, but the part of her that expected to have to fight for her place in the lives of others had her whispering her insecurities about her relationship with Buddy.

He needed a beard.

She was his ticket into Eric’s basement.

He was only nice to her because she knew his secret.

But here Buddy was, holding her hands and telling her he was on her side. He teased her for her girly fantasies without being mean and he made sure guys didn’t take advantage of her. It didn’t feel like she had to try hard to get him to listen to her or just _see_ her.

 _He really is too good for Eric_ . Jackie rubbed Buddy’s knuckles with her thumb. _So is Donna, but the heart wants what the heart wants I guess._

Hanging out with Buddy was what having an older brother was like she supposed.

“You don’t have to worry about anything, Buddy.” Jackie squeezed his hands in reassurance. “Steven Hyde and I...we’re not going to happen.”

* * *

Hyde was going to have to re-evaluate his stance on Buddy Morgan.

He and Jackie were having one of the most random conversations, but it was the kind of filler talk Jackie liked. It was all stuff he already knew about her, but Jackie of 1976 didn’t know that he knew. He let her ramble on because she looked so happy when she was chattering on and it was something he needed to see.

And Buddy just had to interrupt.

So far, Veterans Day was nothing like the one back in the 1976 from the timeline he came from. For starters, he had woken up in his storage room bedroom instead of Bud Hyde’s apartment, so when Kitty saw him walk into the kitchen in his Che Guevara shirt she gave him that look that always guilted him without her having to actually say anything.

It didn’t stop her from saying, “This is the day that celebrates what the man that took you into his home did for this country and you’re going to wear a shirt with a communist on it?”

He had mostly changed it for her, a silent acknowledgment of his true parental figures, but also because it probably would have fucked with his mind if he wore exactly what he had worn in the original 1976 Veterans Day and then Jackie walked in wearing her gaucho style denim jumpsuit.

Hyde hated himself for remembering her outfit from that day, but it had been an extremely significant day for him.

Jackie hadn’t worn the same outfit. She had flounced into the basement wearing her favorite brand of jeans—Jordache—which were tight and slim instead of loose like her jumpsuit and a tight fit black turtleneck under her dark and patterned tapestry coat. It was a mature look for her and something he expected of eighteen year old Jackie.

She was a combination of both the girl in an ironic twist of fate that he realized he liked and the young woman he was in love with.

It had taken a lot of effort to keep from following her when she walked away with Buddy. He had come close to asking her if she wanted to hang out, just the two of them, and Buddy had cut him off.

Hyde was ready to take a seat somewhere with more beer when he heard Kelso bragging to Fez that Jackie had been talking about him. Fez had tried to reason with Kelso, but Kelso wouldn’t listen to him and kept going on and on about how Jackie wanted him back. Eventually Fez stormed off to find Buddy so he had a friend that actually listened to him and Hyde decided he had enough of the barbecue and headed inside.

Kitty was the only one in the kitchen as she continued to make food for the barbecue. Hyde stalked past her and was ready to head to the basement when she called out to him.

“Hey, Steven. Where’s your girlfriend? I haven’t seen her since this morning.”

Pausing midstep, Hyde turned back around to face Kitty who hadn’t looked up from the ambrosia salad she was preparing.

“Uh...girlfriend?” He asked, his chest constricting as he waited for Kitty’s answer. He held his breath, waiting for the familiar statement.

Kitty wiped her hands on a dish towel and scrunched up her face in thought. “Yes, the bossy little one you’re always with and that’s always fixing cars with Red.” She snapped her fingers in excitement. “Oh, Jackie!”

Hyde did everything he could to keep from gaping at her. How did the changes in the timelines still result in her coming to the same conclusion? Stranger yet, Kitty didn’t call Jackie mean this time around. Jackie was still bitchy at times, but she wasn’t her old raging bitch self she had been during her Kelso days in the timeline Hyde originated from.

“Jackie’s not my girlfriend, Mrs. Forman.”

“Oh?” Kitty turned to face him, balling her hands into fists and resting them at her hips. “Are you sure?”

“We’re just friends, Mrs. Forman.” The words sounded awful coming out of his mouth. He didn’t expect them to affect him so much when he said them out loud.

“Huh. I just assumed because you two seem to really like each other.” Kitty shook her head and gave him a goofy grin before walking through the sliding glass doors with the ambrosia salad.

As heavy and sour as his own words had been, Kitty’s words had lightened the weight on his chest. She hadn’t just assumed that _he_ liked Jackie. She had assumed that _Jackie_ liked him back.

Hyde didn’t have any expectations that the night would end with Jackie sucking on his tongue again, but Kitty had been correct back in the original Veterans Day of 1976.

She just _had_ to be correct this time around as well.

* * *

Jackie let herself be twirled by Fez and she spun right into Buddy who awkwardly caught her and attempted the steps she and Fez had just taught him.

The sun had set and the night had grown colder but the party was still going at the Pinciottis’ now that the Formans had moved their barbecue over. Jackie had convinced Donna to let her play music and she and Fez had gotten some of the old people dancing to try and save the barbecue before Bob had given up.

“Come on, Donna!” Jackie giggled, pulling Donna into the makeshift dance area and bumped her hip with her and jump turned to bump her other hip against hers to the beat of _Come and Get Your Love_ by Redbone.

“I can’t believe you're making me do this,” Donna complained but a smile had bloomed on her face.

“Oh, you know you love to dance!” Jackie pulled Donna closer and took on the role of the lead. She knew they looked ridiculous because of how much taller Donna was but Donna was laughing and that was all that mattered. “I can always play some ABBA. Isn’t _Fernando_ the song you and Eric sang and danced to in his driveway?”

The event had happened so long ago in Jackie’s memory, years instead of months ago when she had dragged them to the disco in early April. Jackie could vaguely remember the bittersweet way Steven had danced with Donna as he was letting go of his feelings for her, but the story Donna had told her about her and Eric’s moment when everyone else had gone home had stuck with her so vividly. It was the kind of cute moment that should happen between lovers that were best friends.

She had had that with Michael once. It was one of the memories she held onto from before everything went to hell with them. Before getting laid was the most important thing to him. She missed having him as one of her best friends. They would just goof off, sort of like how she did with Fez and Buddy.

Dancing with Steven had never been like that. He was kind during the Underclass Prom and danced with her so she could have the full prom experience, but when they got together dancing was never about being silly together. It was about being close and in their own bubble. They would sway to the music and the rest of the world would disappear.

“God, how do you remember stuff like that?” Donna averted her gaze bashfully, her cheeks turning a vivid shade of pink.

“Because it was cute and about love,” Jackie answered her in a sing-song. “Eric is a terrible dancer but it’s nice that he dances with you.”

“Maybe I should get him to dance with me now.” Donna looked over Jackie’s head to where Eric and Steven were sitting together on some lawn chairs.

“Yes.” Jackie smiled mischievously at the boys. Eric was likely to completely embarrass himself. She pushed Donna towards him. “Do it! Do it!”

Jackie clapped her hands together as Donna literally dragged Eric to the dance space. He protested the whole time with head shakes and nervous smiles, but got right into it as soon as Donna demanded he danced.

She clasped her hands behind her back and watched them laugh and move like they were the only two in the backyard. Eric and Donna were going to do things right this time. Jackie had no idea how long she would be trapped back in time, but she was going to make sure the two morons got their proper happy ending. They were going to make it through high school and go to college exactly when they planned and somewhere down the line they were going to marry and have green-eyed babies that Jackie━their future godmother━was going to spoil rotten.

No matter their problems, forever hung between Eric and Donna. That’s what Jackie wanted—her own little piece of forever.

She watched them dance and her eyes drifted to Buddy and Fez. Fez was still attempting to teach Buddy how to lead, cheering when Buddy moved more fluidly. Instead of joining them again she decided to take Eric’s empty seat and plopped down, tired after a long day.

“Forman looks like a bobble head.” Steven handed her one of the beer bottles the Pinciottis had bought for the barbecue.

“I caught him dancing in the basement once.” He had been the only one around and so supportive when she confessed about her pregnancy scare. “It was the most embarrassing thing I’d ever seen.”

“Worse than Kelso?”

Jackie groaned at the reminder of her ex’s horrible dancing. “They actually dance exactly the same, except Michael has longer limbs so he’s more of a danger to other people.”

Steven chuckled and took a gulp of his beer. The two sat in comfortable silence watching the couples dance as the barbecue came to a close. At some point Donna and Eric had slipped out from the backyard, probably to take advantage of how empty the Forman residence was.

As Jackie shuffled around the yard removing decorations from the fence, a familiar song began to play over the radio. She swayed side to side in place as Leo Sayer crooned over the speakers. It wasn’t until the song reached the chorus for the fourth time that Jackie realized that _When I Need You_ had been playing during her first kiss with Steven.

“Need a hand?”

Jackie almost tripped from the shock. She had been stretching on her toes to reach a banner when Steven approached her from behind and yanked the banner down.

“You’re way too short to be doing this.”

“Yeah, but if I don’t look busy, Mrs. Pinciotti will try to get me to help her clear the food and package whatever’s leftover.

“Ah.”

The two worked silently as they removed all of the decor. It was completely uncharacteristic for Steven to help out Bob and Midge with anything without an ulterior motive, but Jackie wasn’t going to point it out.

“Do you think,” Steven finally broke the silence, dumping the last banner into a box, “that Buddy might like Fez?”

Jackie giggled at the thought but then stopped when she thought back on the past few weeks. Buddy _had_ been getting closer to Fez and he was kinder to him than anyone had ever been. He had even begun giving him more attention than he had given Eric and had been hanging out with him whenever they were both free.

“Oh, no,” Jackie groaned. “What is with Buddy and straight guys?”

“Hey, are we sure Fez is completely straight?” Steven asked, lifting the box up. “Just ‘cause he’s into chicks, it doesn’t mean he can’t like guys.”

“Huh.” Jackie thought back on all of 1979 Fez’s comments about Steven’s pretty eyes and his relationship with Michael. He was just as obsessed with Michael as he had been with her when he first met Jackie, maybe even more. “I never considered that before.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up being bisexual.”

“That’s the word for it? _There is_ a word for it?” Jackie shrugged her shoulders. “Makes sense. Bi for two and then sexual.”

Jackie bent down and picked up some dead sparklers that littered the ground.

“The Pinciottis really went all out, huh. The Boy Scouts must really love Veterans Day.”

Steven stood there holding the box, staring at her. It was the same way he had stared at her when she had rolled out from under the Vista Cruiser on Career Day, like he found something interesting he wanted to keep for himself.

“Why do you do that thing?” He asked.

“Do what?”

“Act like you’re dumb,” Steven dumped the box at the kitchen door and did an imitation of a valley girl and said, “when you’re totally not!”

“Steven—“

“We talk, man.” Steven licked his lips and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Stupid shit, bullshit, about bullshit from our parents—but we talk, Beulah.”

“What did I say about calling me that?”

“You never said anything. Kicking me and slapping me doesn’t count as talking.”

“Well, quit it.” Jackie punched his chest lightly, nothing more than a love tap. Steven grabbed onto her hand and flattened his hand over hers against his chest.

“I’ll quit it when you do,” Steven leaned in closer and his breath fanned across her face, “Beulah.”

Jackie swallowed deeply and bit her lip. Somewhere in the back of her mind something was screaming and alarms were ringing but the noise was distant and negligible.

“Hey, you guys!” Donna opened the kitchen door and Jackie jumped back, pulling away from Steven. “We scrounged up all of the leftover beer and took it to the basement, come on. Tomorrow’s Grade Preparation Day so we can get shitfaced.”

“As if we haven’t gone to school hungover before,” Steven deadpanned.

Averting her gaze, Jackie looked skyward and avoided looking at Steven as he marched past Donna, making his way out the back gate and into the alley.

Jackie waited for the sound of the wooden gate smacking against the latch before she turned her gaze back down. The intrigued look on Donna’s face made her wish she had kept looking up at the night sky.

Donna smiled mischievously and took a step closer to Jackie, playing with the end of one of her braids. “Are we going to talk about that?”

“For once, Donna,” Jackie ran her hands down her face, “I would rather talk about anything besides me.”

* * *

The collapse of Kelso’s and Laurie’s relationship was both surprising and unsurprising.

Hyde had known it wasn’t going to last. Neither one of them was faithful to the other which was no different than how their relationship was in the original 1976. Kelso had expected Laurie to be a faithful girlfriend to him, which was naive of him and hypocritical.

The divergence in the timeline had Laurie dumping Kelso before he could catch her cheating on him this time around.

For a few days after Veterans Day, Kelso had been convinced that Jackie had finally seen the light and regretted breaking up with him. He had been annoying all of the guys minus Buddy—whom he refused to discuss his feelings in front of—with his tangents of how he expected Jackie to crawl back to him; all while he was still fooling around with whoever he wanted to.

Laurie had caught onto where Kelso’s attention truly lied and dumped him for his obsession with Jackie and what her feelings for him could be.

It was all finally put to a halt when Kelso had burst into the basement one afternoon and announced his impotence.

“So,” Buddy had barely waited for the laughter to subside when he turned to Kelso, voice cold, “you think Jackie is going to take you back, but you were fooling around with Pam Macy?”

Kelso had gaped at him and then with a shake of his head dismissed him.

Buddy and Hyde had been in silent agreement to keep Kelso from making any passes at Jackie with some side help from Donna. Big Red had made it her personal mission to make sure Jackie was never alone with Kelso and had even recruited Fez’s help.

She had also been giving him some strange looks lately and Hyde wasn’t sure what they were about, but he caught her smiling at him and then turning away often.

“You’re disgusting.” Buddy had barely entered the basement with Fez following close behind him and looked like he was itching for a fight. The guy was scrawny, but if it came down to it, Hyde’s money was on him when it came to a matchup between Buddy and Kelso.

There was something about watching gentle beings finally snap that was oddly fascinating.

Kelso pulled the popsicle he had been eating out of his mouth and pointed it at Buddy. “What did I do?”

“You think just ‘cause your tiny prick stands at attention when Jackie hugs you that you’re meant to be together?”

At that, Hyde and Forman dropped the cards they were playing with and focused their attention on Buddy and Kelso who were standing on opposite sides of the room behind the couch. Realization dawned on Forman’s face as he put together the timeline of events in his mind from when Kelso had first complained about his problem pitching a tent to when he had announced that Jackie was the only girl he wanted to be with.

“ _That’s_ why you’ve been so gung-ho about Jackie?” Forman’s face twisted in disgust.

“Where did you hear that?” Kelso demanded, looking disgruntled.

Looking guilty, Fez stepped behind Buddy to hide from Kelso.

“Fez!”

“I’m sorry, but Donna said to tell her or Buddy when you planned to do something about Jackie and I cannot lie to Donna.” Fez clutched the back of Buddy’s black pea coat. “She scares me.”

“Why are you guys so against me?” Kelso demanded throwing aside his popsicle. “I love Jackie and I want her back. I’m going to do better this time.”

Only he wasn’t. Hyde knew that Kelso was going to do better but ultimately ended up just getting sneakier about his cheating ways and ended up neglecting Jackie when he thought she was being a bad girlfriend, which unfortunately Jackie had to own up to at times. Eventually Jackie ended up kissing someone else who had taken advantage of her vulnerability and the hypocrite that Kelso was wouldn’t forgive her for it and wouldn’t see his role in how that had even happened.

There was something about being together that brought out the worst in the both of them.

“Look,” Kelso sat down on the back of the couch, “no one understands me like Jackie does. And I really do love her. Being with other girls isn’t the same. None of them are my best friend like Jackie is.”

It was the beginning of the end for anything Hyde and Jackie could be. Kelso sounded so sincere and ultimately it wasn’t up to Buddy or Donna who Jackie dated.

He hadn’t minded the slow state of things as they built up their friendship. Jackie had been busy with cheer and Homecoming and work so they didn’t have much time to hang out as he would have liked, but when she did come over to hang out with everyone she wasn’t avoiding him like she had after Halloween.

Just like Donna, she had also been giving him looks—only hers weren’t strange. They were familiar and they had his chest growing hot and airy whenever he noticed her looking his way, the apples of her cheeks turning a warm pink.

But Hyde was now looking at everything as it had happened back in his original timeline. Jackie had forgiven Kelso and gave him another chance until he had abandoned her and ran off to California.

Jackie craved that love and affection she wasn’t getting at home and sixteen year old Jackie had sought it out in Kelso who she could have star in all of her girly daydreams. She was still living in her fantasyland and wasn’t ready to join the real world yet.

“I think you need to think over what you just said and put emphasis on the _friend_ part.” Buddy made to sit on the deep freeze, Fez following him and looking nervous the whole time. “I’m going to say this as someone that unfortunately has to hang out with you because we share the same friends, okay Kelso? So listen up.”

“Okay,” Kelso muttered in defeat, reluctantly turning to face Buddy.

“Jackie does care about you. You were her first boyfriend and that’s special but you have to move on from that. Jackie was being kind to you because that’s who she is.” Forman snorted which earned him a glare from Buddy. “Can it, Eric. What I’m saying Kelso, is that Jackie has moved on and wants to be a friend to you. Which is what you should be trying too. Because right now you’re making it seem like all you care about is what’s going in your pants and how you can’t be with other girls right now until you get that figured out. Which by the way, you go to a doctor for that. It’s not that uncommon of a problem. It’s actually pretty common.”

“I don’t just care about that!” Kelso insisted. “I want a connection again like with Jackie.”

“A connection with a girl that you didn’t call for a week after your first time? Or that you cheated on with not just one but three girls that we know of during your relationship?” Buddy asked. It was almost eerie how calm he was considering he never was when he had to talk to Kelso. “And there’s your problem. You want a connection, but it doesn’t mean it has to be Jackie. I mean, what have you been doing since you broke up with her? Rounding bases with lots and I mean _lots_ of other girls. Did you even apologize for cheating on her?”

Kelso went silent, looking at the wall above the washer and dryer.

“Really Kelso?” Forman scoffed. “Maybe you should do that before you start writing songs.”

Buddy’s face scrunched up in confusion. “You wrote her a song?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to hear it,” Hyde finally spoke up. It had been bad enough the first time around when he had to listen to him write it and he knew Jackie hadn’t been impressed by it either.

“And just be glad I’m the one talking to you because if Fez told Donna what had you running back to Jackie, we would have been on our way to the hospital right now.”

“What? Why?” Kelso’s mouth hung open in confusion.

Hyde rolled his eyes. He wished he could blame the circles for making Kelso so slow, but he had always been a bit like that. “Because she would have kicked you so hard in the nads, your balls would be sucked back into your body, numbnuts.”

“Uh!” Kelso gasped, guarding his crotch with his hands.

“Please don’t be mad at me, Kelso!” Fez pleaded. Buddy put an arm around his shoulders and rubbed his arm in comfort. Hyde would have to make note of that to tell Jackie later.

“Come on, Fez. We can stop by Fanny Farmer on our way to pick up Jackie from work.”

“Yay!” Fez clapped his hands excitedly and hopped off the deep freeze. Buddy chuckled at his reaction and they headed out the basement again.

Yeah, Hyde was definitely going to have to bring up recent developments to Jackie.

“Guys,” Kelso spoke seriously once they were alone, “I am _not_ tiny.”

* * *

Jackie looked up at the chandelier above the dining room table and counted the crystals dangling from the lights.

What she wouldn’t give to be sitting at the card table the Formans designated as the kids’ table. She could be eating the buttery mashed potatoes Steven helped with or even a slice of one of the pies Laurie baked with Kitty. Jackie could be caught in the middle of a pea fight Michael started by launching a spoonful at Donna to see if he could get any down her shirt.

Instead she was sitting at a picture perfect meal with her parents, sitting next to her ninety-one year old grandmother and listening to her older cousin brag about her fiancé to the family members attending the dinner as her Aunt Elizabeth flashed smug smiles to everyone over her daughter’s great fortune.

“Why didn’t he come to dinner?”

Carla rolled her heavily made up eyes and gave Jackie a condescending smile. “He had to spend dinner with his family back in Boston and I had to come here and delight you all with my presence. I’ll be spending Christmas with him and his family.”

In Jackie’s original 1976, she had smiled until her cheeks hurt and told her family members all about how she had won Duchess at Homecoming and she had shown off pictures from the parade and from spirit week. Her cousin Carla had said something about how she didn’t have a crown and Jackie had to remind her that she was only a sophomore and they didn’t get crowns, just sashes. Although her parents didn’t attend the Homecoming game and didn’t see her announced as part of the court, they had both been happy for her and that was at least something.

This time around Pam had shown up to the game and had even been the one to take some of the photos herself. Jackie smiled softly to herself remembering that it had been Donna and Buddy that had gotten her mother to watch her be part of the Homecoming parade. Although it was something that Donna didn’t care for, she still went out of her way to do something for Jackie and had even shown up to the game, dragging everyone with her.

She had been in a relatively good mood ever since her parents had decided to renew their vows. The Pinciottis had stopped dating random strangers and decided that they would hold a second wedding in December. Donna was over the moon that her parents were acting like a couple in love again, but Jackie was looking at it all as a countdown.

The second wedding was where it all peaked and started going downhill for the Pinciottis, which meant Donna only had a few more months with her mother before their relationship became one of phone calls every other evening and letters being sent back and forth. Midge was always there to talk to Donna when she needed her, but it wasn’t the same as her physically being there every day.

“How are things with Michael?” Carla asked before feigning regretful shock. “Oh, that’s right. You two broke up and you don’t have a boyfriend.”

Jackie rolled her eyes at her cousin’s theatrics. Carla was no longer the older cousin she looked up to for advice and hadn’t been for the longest time. Jackie hadn’t told her that she had broken up with Michael, but Michael had let it slip at her Sweet Sixteen when he decided to hit on her cousins.

“Hmm.” Pam shook her head, setting down her goblet of wine and waved a hand dismissively at Carla. “That ended so long ago and it’s a good thing too. Michael is a beautiful boy but a simpleton. Jackie has been _hanging out_ ,” Pam used air quotations around the words, “with Buddy Morgan. He’s the son of one of Jack’s lawyer friends.”

Pam winked at Jackie and carried on with her meal. It was strange to Jackie how her mother knew she hung out with Buddy a lot, but hadn’t noticed that she had a job.

“He’s a good boy,” Jack spoke up, nodding his head without looking away from his meal. “He’ll most likely follow in his father’s footsteps and work at his firm.”

 _No_ . Jackie set down her fork and slumped in her seat. _Buddy wants to be a journalist_.

Buddy was the kind of boyfriend her parents wanted her to have. He came from a good━rich━family and was clean cut and was going to go off to a great college. The Morgans had been invited over for dinner, but had to decline because they were off to visit relatives in Washington.

Steven would have never been invited to a proper family dinner. The Burkharts had a family crest and came from an old noble family while Steven had the wrong last name of Hyde, an Irish name which was barely tolerable with her father and that was before it was even discovered that he was half black.

And of course it didn’t help that Steven was the former lunch lady’s son and was known as the resident delinquent.

The one positive was that Pam didn’t care about the race of Steven’s biological father, especially after being told his father was William Barnett. Pam had always been more open minded than her much older and bigoted husband. A little too open if Jackie were asked, but she kept her mouth shut about her mom’s infidelities, not wanting to be the one that caused problems between her parents by telling the truth.

When Pam had come back from Mexico in 1978, she had barely acknowledged that Steven was Jackie’s boyfriend. She had vaguely recollected that she had caught him in their mansion one night when he was sneaking back out before she had abandoned Jackie for a year.

Steven was the one topic Jackie refused to allow her mother to touch. Whenever her mother tried to broach the subject, Jackie would loudly talk over her and remind her that while Pam was enjoying tequila and beautiful beaches, that Steven had been the one that made sure she wasn’t alone and took care of her.

Pam thought she had finally won the unspoken argument when Jackie broke up with Steven. Her mother could be quite observant when she wanted and noticed immediately that something was wrong when she came back from her trip to California and Jackie was spending more time at home.

Using her fork to push her food around her plate, Jackie looked back on the past month. She had no idea what she was doing wrong about her Steven situation. If only she could discuss her dilemma with Buddy. Donna wasn’t a possible option because even if she could wrap her mind around Jackie being from the future and believing her, she hadn’t experienced Steven and Jackie as a couple and didn’t know Steven the way Jackie did, especially the Steven of the future.

There was a reason why the two of them had broken up and Jackie had to keep reminding herself of it. It didn’t matter how cute or how charming Steven was acting. She couldn’t fall back into a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere. She wasn’t a damn pit stop and she didn’t want to end up stuck being the only one in a relationship that was in love and wanting more than just to kill time. There could be no guarantees with someone that didn’t want to look beyond what was right in front of them.

Looking around the room, Jackie never felt so far away and alone. They were all in the room together at the moment but in a year’s time her father would be in prison and her mother would be in another part of the world. Her aunts and uncles were nowhere to be seen due to the shame and not wanting to pick up the slack and take care of Jackie. Her grandmother couldn’t take care of anyone and had her own personal nurse that lived with her at Jackie’s uncle’s home.

All of these people were going to abandon her. They were going to leave her and not even care what happened to her, just like she expected Steven to do once he grew bored of her.

Jackie needed something solid to put her feet on or else she would risk falling into the dark unknown.

* * *

As Hyde changed into his rented shoes his lips curled in a mixture of disgust and amusement as Buddy unzipped one of the bags he had brought with him and removed his bowling shoes.

“Too good for shoes that have already been worn by the plebes?”

“Yup.” Buddy nodded, but smiled good humoredly. “Even brought my own ball to guarantee I don’t use the same one as a commoner.”

“Or to get around our virgin rule,” Kelso guffawed as Fez walked over to their lanes holding a pink ball and pouting.

Hyde hadn’t expected to celebrate his seventeenth birthday in the new 1976. Every morning before he opened his eyes he expected to wake up and be back in 1979. And then every morning his duvet would be too rough to be his goose down feather comforter, his pillow too flat, and none of his scented candles on his dresser.

“I’m not a virgin.” Buddy shrugged, removing his red bowling ball from it’s bag as Kelso walked over to the bar to buy a pitcher. Hyde squinted at the inscription and realized Buddy had his name engraved on his ball.

“Really?” Forman asked, tilting his head quizzically.

“Ninth grade. Shelly.”

“My first quarter lab partner Shelly?”

“Yup.” Buddy looked back and forth between Hyde and Forman’s disbelieving stares. “I wanted to make sure.”

“Oh, okay.” The both of them nodded in understanding.

“And then there was the pool boy and that cleared stuff up.”

“We don’t need details, Buddy.” Hyde shook his head. There were some things that needed to remain a mystery. He grabbed a pink ball and handed it to Forman. “Here you go, Forman.”

“Hyde!” Forman’s face turned red as he sputtered out a protest. “Donna’s coming and she’s going to ask.”

“You shouldn’t have agreed when we made the rule for Fez.” When Fez had joined their group, Hyde had made the rule to mess with him and the other boys had willingly gone along with it before realizing that it meant that the only person that didn’t need to use a pink ball was Hyde.

“Shouldn’t have agreed to what?”

The boys turned and found Donna with her rented shoes in her hands and Jackie standing by her holding a gift bag tied closed with a blue ribbon and her own shoe bag like the one Buddy had.

“Jackie, you own your own bowling shoes?” Forman asked, pointing at her bag.

“As if I would wear the same sweaty shoes as other people,” Jackie sneered and gave Forman a look as if she thought he was an idiot.

Kelso came back with the cups of beer and practically slammed them down when he spotted the girls. “I thought this was a boys only thing.”

Kelso had been acting like a brat the past week because Jackie had told him that she would agree to being friends with him if he could promise her that he wouldn’t hit on her or attempt to get back together with her because it was never going to happen. The two had a strange argument when Kelso kept attempting to get out of the promise by saying “I plomise” as if no one could hear him mispronounce the word.

Donna slugged Kelso on the arm on the way to a seat. “Hyde’s our friend too, you dink.”

“Ow!” Kelso rubbed his upper arm. “Jackie is barely Hyde’s friend.”

“Oh, shut up Michael.” Jackie smacked his arm with her shoe bag right on the spot that Donna had punched him.

“Damn, Jackie!” Kelso sat down with a pout.

Buddy cocked his head but smiled at Kelso’s stupidity. “He never learns does he?”

“No he doesn’t.” Forman tapped on the score sheet with his pencil. “So how are we doing this? Teams?”

Despite the odd number of people, they had decided on teams. Buddy, Jackie, Fez, and Donna on one team and Hyde, Kelso, and Forman on the other.

“So girls versus boys.” Hyde flashed the other team a grin which Buddy returned with a rude hand gesture. Fez’s eyes widened and he looked at Buddy’s hand in awe.

“Oh my God, what is that?”

“You’ve never seen someone stick their middle finger up at anyone?” Buddy furrowed his brows in confusion. “You’ve been an exchange student for like a year already, Fez.”

“Bitch is the word he latched onto and well,” Hyde scratched his cheek as he explained, “it was kind of difficult to teach him any more naughty stuff after he discovered nudie mags.”

“ _Discovered_?” Donna scoff. “You guys leave them all over the basement. He would have to be blind not to see them.”

“Usually when I try to learn a new language I end up learning all of the bad words first.” Jackie laughed, hiding her mouth behind her hand.

“Yeah.” Hyde nodded his head, remembering the day she had first helped him with his Spanish homework. “That’s good stuff.”

Buddy turned to Jackie and waggled his eyebrows as he said something in French that had her face flushing pink. Jackie began slapping his arm repeatedly and only stopped when Fez tried to break them up. He ended up a casualty of Jackie’s slapping and Donna had to lift Jackie up and set her down away from the boys.

“What did he say?” Donna asked, a wide grin on her face.

“I don’t know,” Jackie lied. “I don’t speak French.”

Buddy muttered something low in French again and Jackie shot him a death glare.

“Wow,” Donna deadpanned looking back and forth between them. “Now I regret choosing Spanish as my language elective.”

“I’m pretty sure a French class at Point Place High would have only been able to teach you how to say hello and to name the colors.” Forman smiled teasingly at her. “Pretty sure Buddy only takes the class for the easy A.”

Buddy sighed and nodded his head. “It’s true. Madame Roberts sucks at teaching. It’s why Jackie’s parents and mine got us a tutor. We just realized we had the same one so we just have joint lessons now.”

“Can we just play already?” Kelso whined, his face twisted in a pout as if he had a headache. Hyde smiled at his misfortune. Without even trying, Buddy was always a block in Kelso’s path to Jackie.

He wasn’t sure how much of it was Buddy’s influence, but Jackie was proving over time that she and Kelso were no longer on the same wavelength. There was a time that Hyde could recall Jackie acting stupid and cooing over Kelso’s flattery instead of studying and acting like she didn’t understand her school work so that Kelso wouldn’t feel bad about not understanding his own.

Hyde wondered if there was a way to introduce Kelso to Brooke Rockwell sooner in this timeline. He was pretty sure that the older girl was in college at the moment and wouldn’t return to Point Place to become a library attendant until next year. Kelso had put more effort in being a better person when he was trying to impress Brooke and she seemed to be a good influence on him and they oddly suited each other.

Kelso was the fun Brooke needed in her life and she helped him stay grounded.

When Brooke moved away to Chicago with Betsy, Kelso had seemed lost. He had gone through a depressive period when he and Brooke called it quits because of the long distance. Without her around, even though he could still see Betsy whenever he wanted, he ended up falling back into his old ways. And even when he tried to appear like his happy-go-lucky self there was something about when he was quiet that was unsettling.

Hyde still wished that Kelso had chosen someone other than his sister Angie as his rebound though. Angie was smart like Brooke but more straight laced and that’s why Jackie had assumed Kelso was so insistent on dating her besides burning Hyde. She had confessed that she didn’t think Kelso’s attempts to replace Brooke would work, because Brooke was who Kelso was really in love with and the one the one he had real chemistry with that didn’t involve sex. Kelso was ready to be a real adult with Brooke, which was something Jackie had always wanted for him.

It took a lot for Hyde to get Jackie to admit that she also happened to like Brooke, despite her initial insecurity over her attractiveness.

“Buddy’s up first,” Jackie announced, taking a seat at the score desk.

“Wait, is that tape?” Forman asked Buddy as he finished wrapping his fingers. “And a wrist guard?”

“Yeah…” Buddy raised a brow. “I need the support.”

“Buddy can’t get injured,” Jackie explained, smiling smugly. “He needs to defend his title as the teen champ at Kenosha’s annual competition.”

“You guys are going down,” Donna cheered, laughing at the look of horror on Forman and Kelso’s faces.

“Should have expected that,” Hyde huffed.

They played a round and it became clear that Buddy truly deserved his championship title. Hyde expected Forman to complain about the unfairness, but it all balanced out because Jackie didn’t bowl properly and Fez was still new to the game and played as badly as he was a good dancer. The only downside was that Kelso was distracted by whatever was going on in the lanes on the other side of the alley.

“Hey,” Kelso leaned in, speaking low so that only Hyde and Fez could hear him. “Check it out. Some college chicks that haven’t headed back to UW yet.”

Sure enough, there were some older girls on the other side of the alley playing a few rounds. One of them was wearing a University of Wisconsin sweater which probably had clued Kelso in that they were coeds still hanging around after Thanksgiving break.

“Let’s ditch everyone,” Kelso suggested, nudging Hyde with his elbow. “Get some birthday nookie.”

“Nah.” Hyde crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back in his seat. He looked over to Jackie who was sitting across from him and laughing over a story Buddy was telling her and Donna. “I’m good here.”

It was strange being loyal to someone with no reward. He and Jackie were only friends and she didn’t know that he had feelings for her. Hyde was technically a free agent━both in 1976 _and_ 1979━but it didn’t feel like he was.

Back when he and Jackie had started their fling in 1977, Hyde had started to realize that his feelings for Jackie had gone past a level he wanted them to. He had kept whatever their thing was exclusive throughout the summer and then into the fall he couldn’t accept invitations that fell into his lap━sometimes, quite literally.

It was strange how much his stomach ached at the thought of letting someone else touch him in ways he was craving Jackie to touch him. The guilt would bubble and churn violently and all he could think about was never hearing Jackie laugh with him again or seeing the way her eyes glazed over from taking a hit, her pouty lips spreading into a sleepy smile before she played with his hair, massaging his scalp.

When he had been interested in Donna, the concept of staying true to his feelings and not hooking up with other girls hadn’t even crossed his mind. She had been the only other girl besides Jackie that he had contemplated making his serious girlfriend and yet he couldn’t find it in himself to not go out and score. But Jackie, who at first wasn’t supposed to be anything serious, had him being faithful.

It had been a horrible revelation to have in the middle of a college party. Especially with the reminder that he had brushed Jackie off before she went off to a fancy private college with Donna where there would be rich, preppy boys just waiting for a naive high school girl that needed some attention because her boyfriend acted like he didn’t care where they stood on exclusivity.

When they had broken up after the nurse incident he hadn’t remained faithful to his feelings and the guilt had returned, especially after they had started dating again and all of Jackie’s touches were as hesitant and unsure as they had been when they first started fooling around. She had confessed that forgiving him had been so much easier when she was no longer happy torturing him as her revenge for his infidelity than when she had to see him go off with Raquel after letting her kiss him.

 _“It made me think I was just another cheerleader to you,”_ Jackie told him, refusing to look him directly in the eye. _“You cheated and then only a couple of weeks after that you were already dating someone else. It sort of validated my feelings that for you...it didn’t have to be me. I could have been anyone. I mean, you pretty much implied that you would only forgive me for the ‘Get off my boyfriend’ incident if I let you try that thing Donna won’t let Eric do in bed. No, shut up.”_ She had finally looked up at him when she cut off his protests _. “It wasn’t funny to me, Steven. It wasn’t a joke. Not to me. So all I could think about when you made out with me, led me on to think we were making up, and then left with some other girl is that you didn’t_ need _me. That I was nothing, but a notch on your belt until something else came along.”_

It had been a consequence of his passive aggressive tactics. Hyde had to suffer through Jackie’s hot and cold behavior when they were trying to be intimate and wait for her to be comfortable with him again.

Back in 1979, Hyde buried it deep down, way deep, but he believed that he and Jackie could recover from their most recent break up. He had been waiting and waiting for her to come talk to him. He had truly believed that Jackie was to blame for them not being together. All she had to do was take back what she said, forget about marriage or talking about it, and everything was golden. They could get right back to where they had left off.

But spending months in the past where that wasn’t even a possibility, Hyde had nothing to do but think about why he still wanted to be with Jackie and why he couldn’t even think about moving on to other girls after she broke up with him.

“Suit yourself, but I’m getting some college tang.” Kelso stood up and nodded his chin in the direction of the girls. “Wanna come, little buddy?”

Fez looked at all of his friends and then at Hyde. He gave him a nervous smile, his eyes pleading with Hyde to be allowed to take off from what was supposed to be a birthday celebration.

“Go on, Fez.” Hyde already had a seventeenth birthday in the past━one he hadn’t even wanted, but got anyway━and he didn’t care if Fez wanted to crash and burn with some chicks.

Kelso and Fez took off and everyone turned to Hyde for an answer. He simply shrugged and took a long chug of his beer. Even though he usually looked out for Fez, he wasn’t his keeper nor was he Kelso’s.

Just because he wasn’t trying to get his dick wet, it didn’t mean he was going to stop two single guys from attempting to.

“What the hell?” Forman’s mouth dropped as he watched their friends walk away.

“Why are you even surprised?” Buddy muttered bitterly, his eyes on Fez and Kelso. The farther Fez walked away from the group, the deeper Buddy’s frown got.

Of all people in the world, Hyde had never expected to sympathize with Buddy Morgan. He had been on that side of the fence before, watching someone he wanted choose someone else. If he had to count it, it happened first with his older “girlfriend” Esther going off with his uncle, then Donna choosing Forman, and then Jackie when she decided to take Kelso back a couple of months after she told Hyde she felt no spark.

He didn’t need to imagine the way it must have killed Buddy to be near the person he wanted more than anything. He felt it every time he had to be in the same room as sixteen year old Jackie and had to admit to himself that he wanted to hold her hand. Hold seventeen year old Jackie’s hand. Eighteen year old Jackie’s hand. Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, and on and on and on until his hands were arthritic and clenching them was a bitch, but he would hold Jackie’s hand anyway.

* * *

The game went a lot more smoothly with less people playing. Jackie hadn’t expected Eric to be decent at bowling. The match up with Donna was pretty good considering Buddy and Steven out bowled everyone in the group and Jackie could probably do better if she was willing to risk her manicure by putting her fingers in the bowling ball’s holes.

“I kind of forget how short Jackie really is because she’s always wearing heels.” Donna made the observation as she switched seats with Jackie. “The only time you wear anything flat around me is when you wear your sneakers for cheer or when you’re barefoot and walking around with wet toenails. It’s kind of cute. Like I can put you in my pocket.”

“Yeah, you’re kind of a midget.” Eric laughed. “Which is hilarious because your parents are tall.”

Eric was making fun of _her_ body? _Eric_ of all people? “At least I don’t look like a blow pop.”

“Yeah?” Eric snapped at her. “Yeah? Uh, wow. I can’t think of a food Jackie looks like.”

“It’s true, Jackie.” Buddy slung an arm over Jackie’s shoulders and tweaked her nose. “You’re _so_ tiny.”

“I am of an adequate height,” Jackie argued, crossing her legs and resting her clasped hands on her knee.

“Nah. You’re small, man,” Steven tossed in his two-cents. He smirked at Jackie and raised his brows. “You’re fun size.”

Heat traveled up the back of her neck at the way the comment rolled off his tongue. Her ears grew hotter when Buddy leaned in closer and muttered, “Hear that Jackie? You’re fun size.”

Jackie elbowed him so that he would back off and Buddy snickered to himself. She still owed him a few kicks to the shin for his comment earlier when they were discussing foul words in other languages. He had implied, yet again, that Jackie wanted to take Steven for a ride using the crudest words he could.

It was a gross misuse of the language of love.

Buddy wasn’t entirely wrong though. Jackie’s hormones were raging up a storm and the memories of what Steven could do and what he had done to her weren’t helping. She sometimes contemplated it. She would tell herself she was mad and hurt because of 1979 Steven, not 1976 Steven, so she could think about this Steven and not feel any guilt. 1976 Steven would possibly be interested in fooling around and be grateful for no attachments.

But it wasn’t what Jackie wanted.

She didn’t want to fool around. She wanted her hand to be held for no reason other than for proof that she existed. She wanted someone that knew when she wanted feedback and when she wanted to just cry without her saying so. She wanted someone that knew she needed to play music when she slept because she had spent most of her childhood in silence. She wanted someone that could make a military cot feel more luxurious than a four poster bed.

She wanted more than anything to feel like she was home at last.

Jackie picked up her purple ball and stepped up to their lane. She held the ball in both of her hands and rolled the ball down the lane. It wasn’t the right way to bowl but it still knocked pins down so she didn’t really care.

“Alright, that’s it.” Steven stood up from his seat and took Jackie’s ball out of her hands before she could roll it back down the lane. “This has been going on all afternoon and I can’t take it anymore.”

Jackie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, confused as to why Steven was irritated. “What’s wrong?”

“The way you bowl, man.” Steven grabbed her wrist and pulled her aside. “I don’t get how Buddy hasn’t stopped you yet.”

Buddy shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. “I figured she didn’t want to mess up her manicure.”

“And you would have been correct.” Jackie nodded her approval of Buddy’s knowledge of the way she thought.

“Your nails will be fine. It’s not like their freakin’ long.” Steven turned her to face the lanes. He stood behind her and placed the ball in her hands. “Okay, Grasshopper. First lesson is how you hold the ball. You wanna hold it so your wrist is over your thumb and it should help with the proper spin. Got it?”

“Uh-huh,” Jackie replied with a swallow. She had blanked when he stood directly behind her, his voice right by her ear. She had been barely brought back down to earth by the use of a familiar nickname Steven had called her when he taught her anything.

“Don’t even bother with the thumb hole.” Steven’s breath fanned against her cheek as he adjusted her stance to show her how she should approach the lane.

“Ewww!” Eric cried out, his face twisting ugly in disgust. “Hyde, are you feeling her up?”

“Shut up, Eric.” Donna shoved his shoulder and rolled her eyes. “It’s all innocent.” She paused for a moment and furrowed her brows. “Right?”

“Can it, Mom and Dad. See?” Steven placed one hand on the small of Jackie’s back and the other on her elbow. “My hands are completely respectable.”

“Pfft. They’re so Mom and Dad,” Jackie muttered. Donna and Eric were always the voices of reason whenever they all were trying to shenanigan. Eric’s idea of a crazy time was going mini-golfing in winter.

“Yup. Alright, small Grasshopper.” Steven’s left hand slipped down to cup her left hip. “You’re going to try and curve the ball so it hits the 1-3 pocket.”

“The what pocket?” Jackie could have patted her back, she was that proud of how she was able to speak so evenly despite the heat radiating off of Steven’s hand. She almost forgot how perfectly she fit in his hold.

Hyde sighed, his breath warming the crook of her neck as he slumped in annoyance. He pointed down the lane towards the pins on their right side. “Right there. That’s the sweet spot.” He clapped her shoulders and shifted her over to their left side of the lane. “Try it out.”

* * *

Donna had been pacing herself with her beer. It would take more than a pint to get her sloppy, but Jackie had borrowed her father’s Lincoln and Donna was interested in getting another chance at driving it. She was sure she was never going to get her own vehicle, especially with her dad losing his store, and she rarely got to borrow the El Dorado, so whenever she got the chance to drive a car she took it.

“I did it!” Jackie squealed, hopping up and down and hugging Hyde.

It was a sight Donna was familiar with. Out of all of them, Hyde probably got the most of Jackie’s hugs other than Kelso back when Kelso had been her boyfriend. It never failed to amuse her that for someone that wasn’t into physical forms of platonic affection, Hyde never pushed Jackie away.

Even when it came to her, Donna only got half hugs that consisted of arms slung over shoulders. Jackie was the only that could throw her arms around Hyde’s neck and press herself flush against him.

Donna had started to consider that maybe, perhaps, Hyde _enjoyed_ it when Jackie threw herself at him. Even more so lately when she caught him staring at Jackie when he thought no one was looking.

If it had been last spring when Jackie was still in lala land all over Kelso, Donna would have been pissed off with Hyde for eyeing one of his best friend’s girlfriends. It would have been a disgusting pattern after the fiasco that had been him pursuing her when she was starting to properly date Eric.

But there were subtle differences that Donna wasn’t sure if Hyde had even noticed in himself.

One of the reasons Donna loved Eric so much was because he was her best friend and they could talk about everything and anything. Whenever something happened, she wanted Eric to be the first to know. Despite the obvious differences Jackie and Hyde had, the two of them had a strange and unusual habit of reaching out to each other. Even weirder, Hyde _understood_ Jackie more than even she did, and Donna was supposed to be her best friend.

She wasn’t quite sure how far back she had to go to pinpoint the change in Hyde and Jackie’s relationship from barely tolerating each other’s presence to actively seeking each other out. Donna would assume the shift began during Jackie’s birthday when Hyde had found and consoled Jackie. The both of them had been secretive about what had caused Jackie to freak out. But when Donna thought even further back to July when they were supposed to go Vanstock, Hyde had been oddly defensive of Jackie when Kelso was moaning about how he fucked up his relationship. His behavior when Jackie had shown up to Eric’s house had been suspect as well.

Hyde had asked Jackie if they could talk. No one had asked him about it after they had their plans cancelled, but now Donna was sure he had been about to tell her about Laurie which contradicted his defense of why Eric hadn’t told Donna about Kelso’s infidelity.

Now, looking at how his hands fell to the small of Jackie’s back when she hugged him and watching the softness in his face as he spoke to her, Donna was pretty sure Hyde had a crush on Jackie.

It was insane, but at the same time kind of cute. It was funny as hell to watch Hyde interact with Jackie. Sometimes it seemed like he knew what he was doing, while other times he looked super lost. It wouldn’t stop being strange that it was _Jackie_ of all people that he had developed feelings for, but it was nice to think about Hyde finally having a girlfriend he cared about, especially one that Donna knew was so full of love that Hyde could benefit from.

Donna had been enjoying single Jackie, even if she still made disgruntled faces when Donna tried to get her to read _The Feminine Mystique_. It would be a little sad if Jackie fell back into her old ways and behaved like she had when she had been dating Kelso, but Donna also wanted Hyde to be happy. He deserved the chance.

Just as long as frenching Hyde didn’t interfere with the Jackie Experience Donna had grown accustomed to, she could get down with her best friends dating.

“Gross,” Eric whined, dragging out the vowel in the word. He had moved over to sit by Donna and slumped in his seat, glaring whenever Hyde and Jackie were touching.

“Eric. You’re acting really immature.” She was starting to get fed up with Eric’s attitude towards Jackie. Yeah, Jackie could be nicer, but they _all_ made fun of each other and other than Hyde, no one was really there for Eric and Donna as a couple but Jackie.

Jackie had even been the one to confront Donna about her slip up with not apologizing for announcing over the radio that she was single. She had been on Donna’s side when it came to the fact that she had done it for her job and that Eric needed to communicate with her instead of causing a scene, but she had scolded Donna for not reassuring her boyfriend. Donna hadn’t even realized that she hadn’t thought about how he would feel hearing it and that the issue wasn’t just about trust.

“Sorry, but we’re here to celebrate Hyde’s birthday not for him to mack on Jackie.” Eric gagged to show his disgust with the idea. “He’s been ignoring us, his friends, for the she-devil.”

“Jackie is his friend too, Eric.” Donna crossed her arms in front of her chest and angled herself in her plastic seat so that she could face Eric head on. “And as his friend you should support him. What if he needs your advice about dating someone seriously?”

Eric scoffed. “You think Hyde would date Jackie seriously? They hate each other.”

“No. _You_ and Jackie hate each other.” Donna jabbed her finger into his chest for emphasis. “Hyde definitely doesn’t hate Jackie.”

“Well whatever the hell is going on, it needs to stop.” Eric did the thing Donna usually found cute where his shoulders sort of shook when he talked and his hands moved around. At the moment it was more annoying than adorable. “Hyde is too pure to be tainted by Jackie Burkhart.”

“ _Too pure_ ? _Taint_?” Donna raised her voice, her irritation growing into full blown anger. Sure Jackie was a cheerleader and still bossy and at times judgemental, but she had always shown to care about her and their friends. “Strange how the man in the equation is the one being tainted considering all of the illegal activities said man has gotten the woman to do.”

“Donna. That has nothing to do with━”

“Huh.” Buddy dropped into the seat on the other side of Eric. “I’m starting to think that Eric has a secret. Something he wants to get off his chest, but is too afraid.”

“What?” Eric and Donna asked together, turning their attention to Buddy.

“I’m just saying,” Buddy shot Eric a faux sympathetic smile, “maybe Eric doesn’t like the idea of Hyde liking Jackie and Jackie liking him back, because _he_ likes Hyde.”

Eric shot up from his seat and waved his hands around in protest. “No! I do not. I mean, Buddy, come on. I love Donna.”

Eric waved his hand at Donna and chuckled nervously.

“What are you freaks talking about?” Jackie stood by Eric, her arms crossed in front of her chest and a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised.

“Nothing!” Eric cried out defensively, his voice squeaking. He cleared his throat and shook his head. “It’s nothing. Is everyone ready to go home? It’s almost time for Sunday curfew.”

At that same moment Fez shuffled up to the group, looking dejected. Kelso was missing and so was one of the girls from the group of college girls. Donna couldn’t help but notice the way Buddy had sat up straighter when Fez had dragged his feet back to them.

Maybe more than one of her friends was crushing on another friend.

When they exited the bowling alley, the sun had already set. Looking at her watch Donna knew that they had gone over Eric’s Sunday curfew that was in place during the school year. She was most likely going to hear Red lecturing him and Hyde. Red’s voice tended to carry across to her family’s house. If the boys were smart they would tell him that they had to drop Jackie off at home. She had become Red’s favorite because of her interest in cars and they had all taken advantage of that in the past few months.

“Wait a sec?” Jackie dropped her bowling shoe bag in the backseat of her father’s Lincoln and jogged over to the Vista Cruiser, the gift bag she had brought with her swinging away.

Donna leaned over the open driver’s side window and watched as Jackie tugged on Hyde’s flannel jacket sleeve. Jackie handed the bag over and in one smooth movement, stood on her toes and pressed a kiss to the corner of Hyde’s mouth, her hand on his stomach for support. Hyde’s hand had found its way to the small of Jackie’s back and he held her close to him for a moment as Jackie rambled on about something.

Eric honked on his horn and Donna rolled her eyes at his impatience. He most likely wanted to interrupt whatever was going on with Jackie and Hyde. Her boyfriend could be such a dillhole sometimes.

Jackie jogged back and slid into the passenger seat. She put her seatbelt on and gestured for Donna to put the car in drive.

“So what did you get Hyde?” Donna herself had bought him a new The Rolling Stones shirt. He already had one from their 1975 tour, so she got him a black one with the band’s logo.

“I got him a new pair of boots.” Jackie paused for a moment, playing with the hem of her sweater. “And a scented candle for his room to brighten the space up.”

“A scented candle, huh?” Donna nodded as she pulled out of the parking lot. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she recalled Jackie’s advice to her about what to get Eric for his birthday last March.

Perhaps Jackie had a crush of her own.

* * *

It was the first week of December and Kitty had convinced Red to go hunting with all of the boys. The deer hunting season had started a few days before Thanksgiving but it wasn’t until a week later that he had gotten a free weekend from Price Mart. He almost stayed home because the season would have ended before he could acquire the proper funds, but Buddy had come over that morning to drop off some lemon squares from his mother and offered his family’s hunting cabin.

“Another rich kid, huh?” Was all Red had said when faced with Buddy’s friendly face, but Kitty had thought it was a wonderful solution.

Back in the original 1976 hunting trip, they had used the Pinciotti cabin before Bob and Midge had to sell it. Hyde didn’t mind the change up. He wasn’t planning on hunting and hanging out in the Morgans’ cabin was probably going to be a more luxurious experience.

A change up he hadn’t expected was for Donna to join them and to drag Jackie along. Midge had been going over all of the plans for the second wedding and Donna needed a break.

So the boys, Red, and Bob followed Buddy’s family’s red ‘74 Chevy C/K 10 that Buddy had mentioned was only used for his dad’s hunting trips. The girls would turn around and wave at them every now and then from the back window of the cab.

Hyde knew that Jackie knew how to use a gun but hated hunting. Jack had taught her gun safety because it was the only way Pam would let him store any of his rifles in the house. He wasn’t quite sure why she would want to go on the hunting trip, but he wasn’t going to complain about his good fortune.

Jackie had been busy as part of the Snow Prom committee━something Buddy had signed them both up for━as one of the people in charge of helping to decorate the gym and with work and winter cheer, Hyde had only seen her in passing at school. If some of their classes were in the same direction, was it really that strange if they walked together? He almost expected 1976 Jackie to refuse to be seen with him as she campaigned for Snow Queen, but instead her eyes would sparkle when she saw him approach her and she walked side by side with him until they reached her classroom door.

Ever since his birthday, Hyde had been more optimistic about his chances with Jackie. She had given him an innocent kiss, the boots she had originally bought for him after she broke up with Kelso, and a lavender scented candle for his room. But the thing that gave him the most hope was the fact that she had shot Kelso down when he had asked her to be his date for Snow Prom.

Kelso had attempted to convince her that he had only been asking for them to go as friends, but everyone else knew that he had planned to make a platonic date something more. Jackie had told him that she was already going with Buddy and that even if she weren’t, she would have gone to the dance with Fez instead. It would have been a “just as friends” situation she stated, but Fez at least could dance and display her “like a flower.” She had even promised Fez a few dances who was just happy to have a partner to dance with at a school function.

“Hey Jackie.” Kelso strutted up to Jackie as she hopped out of Buddy’s pickup. “Wait until you see what a great provider I can be.”

Jackie crossed her arms in front of her chest and backed away from him, hiding behind Donna. “Who the hell let you have a shotgun? Donna, take it from him.”

“Normally I wouldn’t follow an order from you, but I’ll make an exemption this time for the safety of others.” Donna threatened Kelso with bodily harm and snatched his gun away. “I’m hiding this.”

 _Well that’s one problem taken care of._ Hyde stuffed his hands into his jeans front pockets and looked around for Fez.

“You’re going to hunt with a whistle and a stick?” Buddy asked Fez, bemused but with an affectionate smile gracing his face. It was starting to get old how Fez couldn’t figure out that Buddy liked him. He was the first one to notice that Buddy was gay, but couldn’t realize that he had a crush on him.

“Can you keep an eye on him, Buddy?” Hyde clapped his shoulder. “Make sure he doesn’t get shot by Kelso or does anything else he shouldn’t.”

Hyde wasn’t in the mood to be fed someone’s soul a second time around.

“Yeah, of course. You’re not hunting?”

“I just came to hang out.”

“Well,” Buddy gave him a shit-eating grin as he adjusted the strap attached to his shotgun, “have fun _hanging_ _out_ with Jackie. She’s not hunting either and you two can keep each other _occupied_.”

Hyde looked down the bridge of his nose at Buddy. “Keep that up and I can find a way to keep occupied right now.”

Just as Hyde could easily tell that Buddy liked Fez, Buddy had realized that Hyde had feelings for Jackie. Hyde was starting to wonder what the hell was wrong with him that Buddy freakin’ Morgan was able to break through the walls he set up and read him so well.

“Just keep Kelso away from her. I don’t want to have to explain to Mr. Burkhart why his daughter was shot in the foot.” Buddy sighed and ruffled his own hair. “I don’t even know if I would be able to reach him. He’s busy with some case and Jackie’s mother is somewhere in the Mediterranean.”

“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Hyde growled lowly. It was just typical Pam Burkhart to go missing around the holidays. It wasn’t until after New Years that Hyde had found out from Donna that Jackie had spent Christmas of 1978 by herself. A common occurrence for her. “Why does Jack even put up with his wife taking off?”

“Not sure if you caught a glimpse of Pam at Jackie’s party.” Hyde had already seen way more of her than he had ever planned to back in 1978, but he had heard her more than seen her when she was yelling at Jackie for trespassing on the golf course. “But you already know how pretty Jackie is.” There was no humor in his statement. Buddy wasn’t trying to make fun of him. “Where do you think she gets it from? Pam’s genetic game is strong. And Jack likes to keep his young and beautiful wife happy.”

There was a bitter edge to Buddy’s voice that Hyde only ever heard whenever the subject of discussion was Jackie and anything that could upset her. He still found it strange how attached Buddy Morgan had become to Jackie. Back in his own timeline, Buddy hadn’t cared for any girls and barely had any of them as close friends.

In fact, Buddy didn’t have any close friends at all before he took off. Maybe that’s why he acted the way he did.

Kicking the toe of his boot against the ground, Hyde reluctantly asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Buddy gripped the shoulder strap of his gun and flashed him a smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “Don’t worry. I won’t shoot Kelso.”

“Hey. If anyone is going to shoot Kelso, it will probably be Kelso.”

* * *

She knew she was running hot and cold and that it was probably unfair, but Jackie couldn’t help it. There were two parts of her warring with each other inside and she just wanted to give in to the side that would make her happy right now.

Jackie was no closer to figuring out why she was sent back in time than she had been when she woke up in July 1976, but she was getting closer and closer to using her knowledge from the future for completely selfish reasons.

“Hey.”

Jackie looked up from where she was curled up on the Morgans’ plush three seater couch and found Steven standing in the doorway.

“Hey,” Jackie returned the greeting softly. Steven pointed at the seat next to her and she nodded in invitation.

She would have to be blind not to see the signs. She knew her Steven and she knew when he was interested. She had years of studying every movement of his, every facial tick, and his every intonation.

What she wouldn’t give to have had that ability after their Veterans Day date in her real 1976. To have known he had put any desire he had for her in the back burner before she had considered taking Michael back.

Jackie had been enjoying his attention. The way he spoke to her and teased her. All of the flirting and the way his glances lingered on her. It was all a precursor to what Steven Hyde really had to offer.

Steven dug into his pockets and pulled out his cigarette carton. “Wanna feel one with nature?”

“Mr. Forman will catch us.” Jackie rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help the smile that was creeping on her face. Her chest felt light and airy whenever Steven wanted to spend time with her even if it was only to hit it.

“Nah. Red and Eric took off for a deer blind. And Bob would only ask us to share.”

Jackie crossed her legs and leaned in, her chin resting on her fist on the arm that was propped up on her knee. “And you’re willing to share?”

“I’m willing to share with you.”

“Yeah? You enjoy my company that much?” The words were out before Jackie could catch them. This is exactly what she was doing that she knew was unfair.

She should have gone the usual route of declaring that it was obvious he would share with her just for the pleasure of her company and being able to gaze upon her beautiful face. It was the kind of bratty and self-centered thing she would say if it were anyone else, but with Steven it had always been flirty questions and banter. She knew she was cute, but it was always nice to hear a hint of how Steven thought she was.

Before he could respond, Donna and Michael stepped into the cabin. Donna directed him to sit on the couch while she searched for a proper hiding spot for his gun.

“How am I supposed to go hunting without my gun?” Michael complained, crossing his arms in front of his chest and pouting, his lower lip sticking out.

“You could always use Fez’s method,” Steven suggested.

“Yeah.” Michael nodded his head, not catching the joking tone in Steven’s voice. “A whistle and a stick would be fun.”

“You would still find a way to hurt yourself, Michael.”

Oh, Michael. Jackie was enjoying being friends with him again, but she was hesitant to spend time with him alone. It was a new experience for Jackie, being overly concerned with how Michael perceived any of her friendly actions. She had believed before that he deserved to pine after her, to feel low as a worm for all the hurt that he had caused her before she found love with Steven.

She didn’t want that for him now. Jackie just wanted her friend that understood her feelings about topics their friends considered too shallow for discussion. She didn’t want to only focus on all of the negative. He was an important part of her life and Jackie wanted more for him.

If Jackie could summon nerdy, library attendant Brooke Rockwell into Michael’s life at this moment she would. The older girl had been _perfect_ for Michael, but it all fell apart when the distance became too much and Brooke stopped trusting Michael would be faithful to her after he agreed with her mother that she needed to live with her in Chicago.

One of the reasons Jackie declined Michael’s request of going to the dance as friends was because back in the original 1976, she only accepted because she still had feelings of attachment to Michael that she had confused with true love. The dance had been a chance for them to get closer again and it had mostly worked. But Jackie didn’t feel that way and she couldn’t lead him on when she didn’t have a single part of her that wanted Michael that way.

She unfortunately wanted someone else when she didn’t want to want anyone.

“Here, Kelso.” Hyde pulled out a joint and waved it in front of Michael’s face. “This should take your mind off of your gun.”

Michael gave him a dopey smile and nodded his head vigorously enough to shake his hair around. “Yeah it would.”

Five minutes later, they were all lounging in Buddy’s room, a towel pressed to the crack under the door and some scented candles lit. Steven had claimed Buddy’s bed and was lying on his back, his upper body dangling off of the bed. Jackie perched herself on the edge of the bed and Donna lounged on the bean bag chair while Michael sat cross legged on the floor.

“You’re a cutie Jackie Burkhart,” Michael cooed, smiling at Jackie through the smoke. “But you’re kind of a bitch.”

“I’m not _a_ bitch, I’m _the_ bitch,” Jackie corrected him, snatching the joint away from him. She took a pull and then exhaled into his face.

“You should get that printed on a shirt,” Donna suggested when Jackie passed her the joint. “You could get it done at the store you got the shirt with your face on it from.”

“Yeah and we can get you a shirt that says Hot Donna on it too. Done all in rhinestones and sparkly.” Jackie giggled and collapsed backwards onto the bed, accidentally smacking Steven’s thigh.

“That was way too close to my junk, Jackie!”

“Oh, you wish it were closer,” Jackie grumbled, turning on her side and curling up into a ball. She had almost stayed home and used her free weekend to sleep all day. She had been a lot busier than she had been in the original December 1976 due to working at the Cheese Palace and helping out with Snow Prom because Buddy had insisted that joining committees would look good on their transcripts and on scholarship applications.

Buddy was already planning on his college funds to be cut when his parents found out he didn’t plan on becoming a lawyer and somewhere in his mind he had assumed that Jackie was interested in majoring in mechanical engineering. A bold assumption encouraged by Donna who still got excited whenever Jackie picked up a wrench. Jackie had never considered it as an option before, that anyone would think she was smart enough for something like that, but she knew Buddy was right that her parents would not have wanted her to go into a field dominated by men.

Outside of cheerleading, Jackie had barely done anything else for school other than when she had helped with decorating for the 1978 Valentine’s Day dance. If she hadn’t quit cheerleading she could have carried on with it and tried to get a scholarship for college. One of the reasons she had tried so hard with the Ladies of Point Place was because they chose one high school senior out of the potential future LoPPs every year to give a grant for college and Jackie had wanted that. Her mother had some funds saved up from pawning the many gifts she had tired of that had been given to her by her many boyfriends, but it wasn’t enough for Jackie to go to school.

She covered it up with how every woman in her family became a LoPP and didn’t tell anyone about her dreams for school. She didn’t want to face any of their disbelieving stares, unable to comprehend that Jackie Burkhart wanted to do something like go to college and pursue a career.

Jackie had started to plan for the future, whether it was going to school or find some way to work on her career without college, but she had started making all of those plans with the thought that Steven would be there right by her side making plans with her. Her plans circled around what a life with him would be like.

Only for him to not see a future for them.

 _I don’t know, I don’t know_. He should have just manned up and told her the truth that no, he didn’t see a future with her because he didn’t want one.

Broadcast journalism or mechanical engineering, it didn’t matter at the moment, but Jackie knew that she had to focus on herself and her future. Her feelings for Steven Hyde couldn’t hold her back anymore.

* * *

“We should draw on her face!” Kelso hissed out the whisper, excitedly. Donna was closest to him and slapped him on the back of his head before shoving him out of Buddy’s room. “Ow! Donna! She fell asleep in the middle of the circle, we gotta!”

Hyde rolled his eyes and grabbed a corner of Buddy’s duvet and folded it over Jackie’s small form. She had fallen asleep at some point while they had sparked up a second joint. He heard Kelso stomp down the hall and slam the cabin door shut, but never heard a second pair of boots make their way out of the room.

“D’awww!” Donna cooed, mockingly batting her lashes at him. “You’re so sweet on her.”

“No,” Hyde dragged out the negation. He really wished he was better at lying when it came to Jackie. His brain and his tongue never seemed to connect properly. “No, I’m not.”

Donna shot him one of her motherly unimpressed looks that she adopted after years of being friends with mostly boys. She stuffed her hands into her coat pockets and stared him down. “It’s just us, Hyde. You can be honest with me.”

“It’s just a blanket, Donna.” Really, what was going on with him that Buddy and now Donna were able to read his feelings for Jackie?

“A year ago you would have been the first one drawing a unibrow on Jackie.” In the original 1976 he _had_ drawn a unibrow on her. “But now you probably talk to her about her family more than you talk to me about mine and you do stuff like _intimately_ teach her how to bowl and make sure she’s tucked in. And you’re always touching her whenever you can get away with it.”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” he lied, too much emphasis on parts of his sentence.

“I think it does.” Donna rocked on her heels. “And I think it’s cool. Yeah, she’s pretty judgmental of others, but she’s actually a nice person underneath the surface. Kind of like how you’re a nice person underneath all of those burns and the tough guy act.”

_What._

Hyde scratched his cheek in confusion and narrowed his eyes behind his shades at her. This was not the reaction he had expected from Donna. He expected her to confront him about dogging one of their best friends.

“What about Kelso?”

“The guy Jackie stopped having feelings for almost half a year ago?” Donna raised a brow and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “And has hooked up with at least one girl a week until recently when he decided to drag himself back to a girl that has no interest in him?”

_Why the hell didn’t they respond like this when Jackie and I started fooling around in the summer of 1977?_

He was starting to get a little pissed off with the different reactions he was getting from Forman and Donna about his possible interest in Jackie. Why was it so much easier to accept it now than it had been before?

“If it helps,” Donna leaned back against the door frame, “I’m pretty sure she thinks you're _saucy_.”

He wondered how chicks remembered stuff from way back. Donna mimicked the same way he had said “saucy” when he had teased her about Eric trying to impress her when they found the keg. He stared at her trying to remember why the gesture was so familiar until Donna’s face scrunched up in repressed laughter, her lips forming a straight line, and her cheeks glowing pink.

“I’m glad you find this so amusing.”

“You have to admit it’s kind of funny.” Donna shrugged and gave him a taunting grin. “You two are nothing alike. You two used to be exactly like water and oil.”

 _Not exactly_. Hyde knew they had their differences but at their cores when he saw Jackie it was almost like looking into a mirror. Just because the house was bigger, it didn’t make the problems nonexistent.

“Okay, okay.” Donna straightened up and relaxed her features. “You know how last March Jackie told me to get Eric a scented candle for his birthday?”

“Yeah…”

“She told me that it was romantic.” Donna raised both of her eyebrows at him, waiting for him to connect the dots. “Come on, Hyde. She got you a freakin’ candle. She thinks that’s romantic. And it kind of is. Eric lights the candle when we make out in his room and—“

Hyde made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat and waved his hand to stop Donna from talking. “I don’t need to hear about you and Forman. And I’m pretty sure she got it so that my room wouldn’t stink.”

He didn’t want to put too much meaning behind her gift. She had gotten him a new pair of boots and a candle that she had only said was to brighten up his room. Hyde had originally appreciated the gift because it reminded him of the relaxing candles Jackie had brought back to his room in 1978 when they decided to compromise on what she could do to his bedroom.

He wasn’t too fond of the floral scent reminding him of the things he and eighteen year old Jackie had gotten into in his room. He had woken up from far too many wet dreams about his head between sixteen year old Jackie’s thighs, giving her everything she was deprived of that she deserved, thinking about the awe on her face the first time he had given his Jackie just that with only his tongue.

“Or,” Donna pulled on the flaps of his cream and red and gray accented Pendleton Westerly cardigan in alternating wiggles, “she wants it to smell nice in there when you two are wearing out the springs of your cot.”

Hyde choked on an intake of air and slapped Donna’s hands away from him. She laughed at him and strolled away, satisfied with her teasing. He heard her greet Buddy on her way out of the cabin.

“Hey,” Buddy greeted him, peeking into his bedroom to look in on Jackie. “She’s napping? Good. She hasn’t been sleeping well lately.”

Hyde narrowed his eyes at Buddy who had walked into the room and pulled Jackie’s heeled boots off and sat them down at the foot of his bed. He was starting to wonder if his theory about Fez applied to Buddy and that maybe Buddy’s interest lay elsewhere.

He didn’t need that crap. He had just figured out what he should have told Jackie about what he saw for them, about how the only constant he thought about when he contemplated his future was her. He didn’t need to be competing for her affections with the poster boy for every parents’ dream boyfriend for their daughter.

“Do you have any more bud?” Buddy asked him, closing his bedroom door behind him. Hyde nodded hesitantly and Buddy clapped his shoulder. “I’ll buy it off of ya. Come on, let’s go to my parent’s room. There’s a fan in the en suite so I usually go in there when I sneak away from my dad’s hunting party.”

And that was how he found himself sitting on the floor of Buddy Morgan’s bathroom, his back against the jacuzzi. Buddy had opted for lying in the empty tub. He had an ease about what he was doing that made it obvious that he had done it often.

“I couldn’t take being around Fez anymore so I left him with Bob if you’re wondering.” Buddy’s hand dropped over the edge of the tub and he handed the joint back to Hyde. “it’s getting a little weird hanging out with him.”

 _When did I become Buddy’s therapist?_ Hyde took a strong pull and held it in before releasing it with a couple of coughs. He was going to need to start charging whenever one of his friends came to him for advice. It would really supplement his stash fund.

“Yeah, sometimes I need a break from him too.”

“Yeah, it’s not the same for me.” Buddy squeaked against the porcelain of the tub as he slid further into the tub. “You find him annoying. I want to play tonsil hockey with him.”

Hyde coughed, choking on his recent inhale of smoke. Buddy slapped the back of his head in frustration and Hyde laughed, handing back the joint. Well, at least he didn’t have to worry about Buddy macking on Jackie.

“You know you’re, like, out of his league, right? You could probably do a lot better.” It was unfair to Fez who was his friend, but Buddy Morgan was like a pedigree show dog and Fez was more like a chihuahua mutt. A horny mutt.

“God, that’s what Jackie said.”

Hyde cleared his throat and decided to bite the bullet. “Speaking of Jackie...what’s going on with you two?”

“What do you mean?”

Hyde shrugged, not caring that Buddy couldn’t see him from how he laid down in the tub. “It’s going to sound really bad what I’m about to say.”

“Then maybe don’t say it.”

He couldn’t stop the grin from forming. Buddy was just as spunky as Jackie could be. Buddy was more down to earth than Jackie was, but sometimes there were way too many similarities between them, probably due to being rich kids that just had to ask daddy for whatever they wanted.

“Nah, I’m going to say it.” It had been on Hyde’s mind long enough. “Before this year, you kind of...avoided girls unless you needed to be around one. Sometime in ninth grade you kind of drifted away from them and sort of just coasted around everyone and yet somehow still remained one of the coolest kids. And now you’re attached to Jackie Burkhart’s hip.”

Looking back on his knowledge of Buddy Morgan from his original timeline, Hyde knew that Buddy hadn’t been close to anyone before he had taken off for parts unknown. Not a single person had been able to say they truly knew him well enough to know where he may have ended up.

“And?”

“Not to sound like Forman, but you’re the nicest guy in school that everyone likes and Jackie is one of those bitchy girls that are mostly only liked because almost every guy wants a shot at nailing them or because they’re so perfect with the looks and the grades and the clothes.”

It was a similarity Jackie had shared with girls like Kat Peterson that Hyde hadn’t truly noticed until he had become her friend and then had started dating her. She had originally been the bratty kid that had sunk her claws into one of his best friends. Yeah she was hot, but he couldn’t see the appeal beyond that, that would help her climb the ranks of popularity.

Hyde had enjoyed fooling around with Kat, he wasn’t going to lie about that, but there wasn’t much substance. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that she didn’t find him worth her time unless he was making her come so he never really knew her beyond the pretty nails and nice rack. There had to be a reason she was well liked beyond being rich and a cheerleader but Hyde wasn’t privy to that. It was the same way with a lot of the girls that slummed it with him.

And then there was Jackie who had treated him like a person, acknowledging that somewhere deep down he had feelings and opinions and wanted him for more than just a good fuck. She would probably be more well liked for being her if she shared that more compassionate side with others. But Hyde liked being one of the few that she shared it with.

“So I find it weird that the guy that had few female acquaintances or any real friends all of a sudden became best friends with one of Point Place’s Queens of Bitch.”

“It’s weird how you just insulted her, but you like her.”

Hyde shrugged his shoulders again. “I like her bitchy. She’s blunt and brutally honest. And _I’m_ brutally honest, so it works.”

“I don’t know.” Buddy handed back the joint, it was reaching its end. “I was in a really weird place this summer. Can I tell you a secret?”

If it had been Forman or Kelso he would have reminded them that he could possibly burn them for it later, but Buddy was more like Donna. Their secrets and their feelings were already burning them up from the inside and were off limits.

“Sure,” Hyde spoke around the stub that joint had become, inhaling the last remnants of the bud.

“Before Jackie.” Buddy paused for a moment and Hyde thought he might have changed his mind about talking until he carried on. “Before Jackie I was in a really weird place. I didn’t really feel like I was anyone. I was always someone different to everyone and I was just kind of floating. The most real I felt was in bars in cities far away where I would meet up with guys and for a few moments with them...I was at least being honest about a part of me. But with Jackie━and now you guys by extension━I feel fleshed out. Like I’m not just some character playing my part until I’m not needed on stage anymore.”

“Jackie makes you feel like you’re more than what everyone else thinks you are.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement and one with a feeling that Hyde understood so well.

“Exactly.” Buddy was silent for a moment as he struggled to pull himself out of the tub from the way he had settled into it. “And I’m only telling you all of this because you’re high as fuck right now. How many of these did you go through since we got here?”

“If I could count right now, I would let you know.”

Buddy laughed, the sound echoing off of the walls. It was at that moment that Hyde realized that other than when he was with Jackie and the rest of them, he couldn’t recall ever hearing Buddy laugh out loud.

It was a good sound.

* * *

“So I like Fez.”

Donna and Jackie looked at each other before feigning surprise at Buddy’s confession. He gave them a withering look and they giggled, patting his arm and reassuring him that his secret was safe with them.

“You should have let Steven drive the truck then, so you could have ridden back with Fez.”

The drive from Dekorra back to Point Place was over two hours and Buddy could have used it to hang out with his crush more. It was something Jackie would have done if she weren’t currently in her cold portion of whatever she was doing about Steven.

It was such a roller coaster, but Jackie couldn’t help the up and down motion of her feelings. She wanted him, she loved him, but it was a road she shouldn’t go down again. Jackie had no doubts that Steven wanted her back, but she wanted a future.

“This was fun.” Donna leaned against the truck, her arms crossed over the open window of the passenger side window. “We should totally go on another long trip, but without our parents.”

“Yeah. Totally.” Buddy nodded in agreement. “We could go to the Burkharts’ ski cabin near Portage when the snow hits.”

It sounded like a good plan. They could take advantage of her family still owning the cabin while they could. If things were different she could even enjoy the winter scenery and cuddle up with Steven by the fireplace. Except that wasn’t something she was supposed to think about.

“Donna!” Bob called out for his daughter, climbing out of the Vista Cruiser.

“Guess, I’ll see you guys tomorrow in the basement after church?” Donna cringed when her father shouted for her again. “Or at school if you guys are busy.”

They watched Donna trudge up the sidewalk and meet Bob on their driveway. It was late but Jackie had no one waiting for her at home that would worry. S the could possibly have dinner with the Formans but she wasn’t in the mood for dining on the buck that Eric had to mercy kill.

Jackie watched as Steven and the Formans carried all of their hunting supplies into the house. Steven and Red carried the cooler carrying the deer meat they had butchered in town once they had left the hunting grounds into the house and didn’t come out again.

“So, I changed my mind about Hyde,” Buddy announced as he turned off of Marie Street. “He’s alright. It wouldn’t be so bad if you gave him a shot.”

Jackie’s feet slipped off of the dashboard from the shock. Buddy had been teasing her on and off about the feelings he believed she had for Steven. He wasn’t wrong, but she had never confessed to them.

“Okay, what happened between then and now?”

“I don’t know, he’s just different than I thought he was.” Buddy shrugged and looked over at her from his peripheral before focusing on the road again. “I just think if given the chance, he would probably be good to you.”

Jackie pressed her cheek against the cool glass of the passenger side window. When given the chance, Steven had been good to her. He had his moments but he had been a good boyfriend up until the end of their relationship. Steven was good to her but it all had an expiration date.

Steven had started to pull away from her, breaking promises, making fun of her more behind her back, and demanding she give up any future talk as if he had the right to control her. Was she a little marriage obsessed? Yes, she could admit that much, but it was wrong of him to be against her talking about it and to keep stringing her along. Jackie was in it for the long haul, she didn’t date without purpose. Dating was the courtship process and you found someone, you fell in love, and you continued to love each other and work toward whatever happens after happily ever after.

“I already told you it’s not going to happen between us, Buddy.” Jackie traced random figures on the condensation forming on the window. Her breath fogged up the glass, clouding her view of the outside.

“I don’t see why not? You like him, he likes you—“

“I want to get married!” Jackie shouted, interrupting him. It was starting to reach the boiling point and she didn’t care how deranged she sounded discussing marriage with a boy that wouldn’t have that option about another boy that she wasn’t even dating. “I want a future where I have a job and kids and a house that’s full of love like we never properly get, Buddy.” Hot tears trailed down her cheeks and she sniffed into her arm. “And I want that with someone that I love and when they see me—“

Jackie folded her body over, crumpling into the bench seat like the dry autumn leaves still scattered all over Point Place.

“Jackie?” Buddy pulled the truck over and as soon as he shifted into park, he pulled Jackie so that her head was on his thigh. He stroked her hair, ignoring the way his jeans were getting soaked. “Jackie?”

Sniffling, Jackie turned her head so her face was pressed against Buddy’s stomach. She probably shouldn’t give in to his comfort and should have made him take her to her house, not waste anymore time. Unlike her, someone was waiting for Buddy to come home.

“For once in my life I just want someone that will look at me and see forever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hyde’s outfit for the Veterans Day episode was very smart.  
> Hyde is very outspoken about his contempt for the government and the Che shirt he wears would have been the kind of thing he would put on as it was a shirt that rebellious teens wore in that era.  
> Other than Jackie, Hyde’s a very fashionable character and his style says a lot about him more than the other characters.
> 
> I had to alter the disco episode so that it was after Hyde let the Donna thing go because the release date for Fernando was March 27, 1976 and the disco episode events happened in their freshman/sophomore year according to the fic.
> 
> I made the 2nd wedding in December because by moving the events of s1-2 to their sophomore year, this makes it so Donna and Eric had been dating for about a year before their first time which it seemed like they had waited a year before they had sex.
> 
> i was dissatisfied with the way JH reconciled at the beginning of s6. Hyde's infidelity was brushed off and Jackie was made to be the bad guy because she wouldn't take him back right away. And the timeline of events makes it so that Jackie didn't even wait all summer before she told Hyde she chose him. It was only a couple of weeks.
> 
> I couldn't find a deer hunting season for Wisconsin from the '70s but it looks like it's usually from Nov 23 to Dec 1 in modern times (this is about gun use). I'm stretching out the season tho so that it's a little longer. Just so that I can put the event in a spot that I like in the fic.
> 
> Being bisexual means you’re attracted to two or more—it doesn’t mean just two but for the sake of the conversation and the direct translation of the prefix, Jackie ofc goes straight to just two.


	6. the concept of soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 5-7-5-7-7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I altered the timeline again lol  
> I'm putting the warning in every chapter and it might get annoying but I just need to give a heads up about it lol  
> please read the notes at the end for explanations about things that I felt I needed to explain for this fic.
> 
> this is the longest chapter so far and I'm pretty sure that the following chapters shouldn't be this long or longer...but I really should stop saying this 'cause I don't even know. November and December kind of ran away from me. They didn't follow their outlines but I'm still happy with what I have here.
> 
> I also completely understand now why some actors prefer scenes with fewer characters because you don't have to worry about what they're all doing.
> 
> There might be some errors...I'll fix those later

_December 1976_

Donna played with one of the loose curls Jackie had made in her hair for her parents’ vow renewal. Her obvious discomfort with the topic of discussion had Jackie sighing and slinging her arm across her shoulders.

Leaning closer, she gently knocked her head against Donna’s. “Have you talked to Eric about this?”

“No!” Donna groaned, dropping her face into her hands. “I didn’t want to say something and make it weirder. I thought I was ready, like _really_ ready, but now it’s going to change everything.”

Jackie chuckled softly and patted Donna’s shoulder comfortingly. “First times are weird, especially when you’re both virgins. Trust me. With me and Michael it was over as soon as it started. And at least Eric will call you tonight and see you tomorrow. Michael avoided me for a week.”

Jackie had been so naive when she was fifteen. She knew something was wrong but she had shoved that feeling aside and bought Michael’s lie. She had assumed when he had stupidly told her that his family’s phones were being cleaned that he had misunderstood and that the Kelsos needed the phone company to check their line or something and that was why he didn’t call. He covered for his disappearing act by claiming he was grounded which wasn’t unbelievable. If it hadn’t been spring break she could have confronted him at school.

Steven had been the one that finally told her the truth. It was out of anger and jealousy but the truth was finally revealed that a majority of Michael’s gifts were tainted. A stuffed unicorn to make up for the week of absence, flowers for every infidelity, and stupid toys he had actually bought for himself but handed over to her when he felt guilty and scared of her wrath.

There were other gifts—mostly stuffed animals—that were given to show he cared and remembered one of their many anniversaries, at least she believed so. It was difficult to separate the good from the bad when there was so much bad.

The one really great gift he had given her during their relationship didn’t make a reappearance in the new timeline because she had broken up with him before their one year anniversary. It wouldn’t have mattered. It was a necklace she ended up pawning and using the money to buy herself new boots after they broke up.

“By the way,” Donna frowned, “what was he trying to give you during the reception?”

It was Jackie’s turn to groan and cover her face with her hands. She had truly been naive when she was still hung up on beautiful Michael being her Prince Charming. In her original timeline, Michael and her were attempting to be friends around this time and he had bought her a unicorn candy dish to prove that he remembered everything about her because he cared about her.

His motivation was to woo her so that she would eventually take him back and he had done the same thing yet again.

“It was a unicorn candy dish,” Jackie grumbled. “I told him to take it back because he was only giving it to me because he wanted something from me.”

“You turned down a gift?” Donna smiled slyly and poked Jackie in the shoulder. “You are really growing up, kid.”

Jackie giggled and shook her head, shoving Donna away with her shoulder. It was a lesson she had learned when she had started dating Steven. He rarely gave her presents, but when he did it was because he just felt like it and wanted to make her happy, not because he wanted anything in return.

“I say you talk to Eric,” Jackie suggested. “You need to be open about this so it can get better. Go wait for him in his room. The adults are still partying over at your place so you can get some privacy. I’ll go tell him you need to talk to him. And then later this week we can have another spa day like we had for your mom’s second bachelorette party.” Jackie bounced up and down from her seat on the stoop, clapping her hands and making Donna snort. “That Dead Sea mud mask did wonders for your skin, Donna. But you have to continue the treatment, trust me.”

Donna shook her head but smiled softly at Jackie. She stared at her for a brief moment before quickly wrapping her arms around her and letting her go.

“Thanks,” she muttered, eyes downcast shyly as she headed inside the Formans’ front door.

Jackie followed after her into the house and headed towards the kitchen. There was nowhere else she expected the boys to be but the basement.

As she climbed down the stairs, she heard Eric’s jovial voice. She frowned at the topic of discussion and the things he was saying.

“God, you’re disgusting!” She exclaimed causing all of the boys to jump in their seats. She didn’t expect to see Michael because he had been talking to Laurie earlier. It was a good thing he wasn’t, because she didn’t want to deal with anymore of his stupidity.

“Jackie?” Buddy looked up from where he was playing poker with Fez for candy instead of money. Jackie ignored him and stormed her way over to Eric and pushed him off the top of the couch. He bounced off of the seat cushions and landed on the ground, bumping his knee against the table on the way down.

“You make love with your girlfriend for the first time and you’re here bragging to your friends about it?”

She recalled when Fez had burst into the basement with his news and everyone cheered the loss of his virginity. It had been an event everyone thought wouldn’t happen and he needed his friends' advice, but Jackie hadn’t considered at the time how Nina would have felt knowing she was being discussed with the group. She hadn’t cared about Nina, but Donna was her best friend and she was horrified.

Her breath hitched when she remembered about Steven knowing that Michael had planned on breaking up with her after their first time. She had been discussed the same way, just a trophy for the basement boys.

“What the hell, Jackie?” Eric shouted, rubbing his knee.

“I’ve already had to deal with my moron ex-boyfriend following me around and Donna’s drunk uncle touching me so I’m not really in the mood to play nice with you, Eric Forman.”

“Wait, who was touching you?” Steven interrupted her tirade. Jackie shot him a withering glare but his jaw remained tensed and his eyebrows drawn down into a frown.

“Not important right now. Eric—“

“I think it’s kind of more important,” Buddy cut her off, standing up and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “When the hell did that happen?”

“God, will you guys shut up?” Jackie stomped her foot and pushed past Steven to make her way to the front of the couch. She yanked Eric by his wrist until he was standing up and dragged him to the stairs. “Donna needs to talk to you and you better sit down quietly and listen to her or I’ll make sure the only _action_ you’ll be getting for the rest of your life is from your hand.”

Eric’s eyes widened in horror and he looked above her head at the other guys. Something in their expressions must have told him that they believed she had the power to follow through with her threat because soon after he was rushing up the stairs to the kitchen, taking two steps at a time.

Once the kitchen door was closed behind him, Jackie turned to the others, arms crossed in front of her chest and disappointed.

“It wasn’t at all like that, Jackie.” Fez gave her sorrowful eyes and wrung his fingers. Out of all of the boys he was the only one that had looked guilty. “He was being romantic about it and even said they had become one being.”

“Of course he was. Eric is sappy like that.” Jackie jutted out her lower jaw, still eyeing them all. “But I’m pretty sure Donna wouldn’t have wanted him talking about it. _She_ didn’t even want to talk about it.”

“It’s just what guys do, Jackie.” Buddy chewed on his lower lip. Usually Jackie didn’t lump him together with the rest of the boys whenever they did anything stupid, but this wasn’t one of those occasions. “It’s not like he was being graphic or saying anything bad.”

“You are all Donna’s friends.” Jackie uncrossed one of her arms so that she could wag a finger at them all. “You _know_ how she is and she likes her privacy. She wanted that moment to be just for her and Eric.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Excuse me?” She shouldn’t have been surprised that Steven had snapped at her. Out of everyone in the room, he was the only one that didn’t and would never kowtow to her when she was in one of her moods.

“You can never keep your big cheerleader mouth shut and you tell Donna everything. And you used to tell Kelso everything too and I’m sure Buddy is your new gossip pal.”

“That’s _so_ not true.” Jackie couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice. 1976 Steven and she weren’t as close as her Steven and she were, but she thought in this changed timeline he knew her better than that. He had told her about meeting his stepdad and she had told him things about her family no one else knew. Those were secrets she had kept buried deep inside of her.

Why had he trusted her with his secret if he thought she was just going to run her mouth? Jackie glared at home for a moment, blinking back the moisture building up around her eyes. They stared each other down until it finally hit her.

_Oh._

Steven hadn’t trusted her. He just knew that no one would believe that he had told her of all people something so sensitive. Their growing closeness wasn’t real and she was falling back into the same trap as before.

It was a good thing she had already decided against getting involved with him. It would have crushed her more to have made the revelation if she had been ready to hand her heart back to him.

“You weren’t exactly shocked about Forman and Donna finally making the beast with two backs.” Steven cocked his head in that predatory manner he had whenever he had the upper hand in a conversation. “Which means you already knew, which means you had talked about it, which means you’re a hypocrite for getting on our case when you were discussing their sex life.”

“It’s not the same!” Jackie threw her hands up in frustration. “Look. Donna and I talked about it because—“

Jackie clamped her mouth shut and eyed Buddy and Fez who were looking back and forth between Steven and her curiously. Thinking quickly she grabbed Steven by the wrist and pulled him toward his room. He could have easily broken free of her hold if he wanted to escape but he allowed her to drag him into the storage room and close the door behind them. She locked it for good measure, just in case Buddy or Fez decided to barge in.

“Care to explain why you locked us in here?”

“For privacy.”

Jackie walked over to Steven’s personal record player and set the needle on the record he had on the turntable. She grimaced at the noise of Blue Oyster Cult, but turned the volume up enough so that they wouldn’t be heard from outside his bedroom.

Sighing to herself, Jackie took a seat on the old ottoman stored in Steven’s room and looked around. In this timeline it was the first time she had ever stepped foot in his room. For Jackie, it had been about six months.

The room was dark and dreary, nothing like the way she had left it for him back in 1978. She had given him twinkle lights to brighten up the room and an armada of scented candles for some aromatherapy. His cot looked miserable without the plush duvet and pillows she had bought for the Steven of 1979.

Jackie didn’t even know if 1979 Steven even kept her gifts after they had broken up. He may have even burned them.

“That lollipop was bragging about how perfect everything was and how great it was to finally not be a virgin,” Jackie began her explanation, fingering the skirt of her deep purple dress. “Eric was bragging about finally having sex. That’s completely different than what Donna was talking to me about. And you _know_ that Donna wouldn’t have discussed it with me unless she really felt the need to.”

Back in the timeline she came from, Jackie had wanted to talk sex with Donna but Donna didn’t want to get into the details. It hadn’t really changed except now Jackie understood how to read lumberjack more than she did back then and had a handle on younger Donna’s feelings.

“Okay, and?” Steven slumped back onto his cot, resting his back against his dresser. “Why are _we_ ,” he pointed back and forth between her and him, “talking about it?”

Jackie ran her hands down her face, avoiding smudging her mascara. This was such a strange conversation to have with a Steven she wasn’t fooling around with.

“I told Donna to talk to Eric about it so the problem might fix itself.” According to the Donna of her original timeline, Eric wasn’t strong but he communicated well enough with her to know exactly what to do with her body. Just remembering that made her want to throw up. “But _you’re_ experienced. You can help Eric out.”

Steven’s mouth opened a bit, slack from the shock of the suggestion.

“You’re like his big brother,” Jackie insisted. “It wouldn’t be that weird if you gave him some advice, y’know.”

Steven scratched the back of his neck in discomfort. He had acted the same way when Jackie had told him she knew just how experienced he was before they had done anything below the belt in the summer of 1977.

“Look,” Jackie stood up and sat next to him on his cot, “everyone already knows how bad my first experience was.” In her original timeline it had only been Steven that knew the true extent of how bad, but due to the big public blow up between her and Michael months back, all of their friends knew. “And how it barely got any better.” He improved slightly with the experience he racked up due to cheating on her, but the only times she had gotten off with Michael was when she took charge, not because of his skill. “And well, I would rather Donna not have to suffer through that. Or Eric. She said it was awkward, Steven.”

Steven sucked his lower lip into his mouth and looked at her thoughtfully. “He should be fine with practice and as long as he doesn’t try anything from porn.”

“Oh, God.” Jackie turned away in disgust. She forgot that Eric had gotten the weird thing he kept trying in bed from porn. “What is it with guys and porn?”

Steven shrugged, smirking at her. She shoved his shoulder and tried to hold back from smiling back at him with no success.

“So are you going to tell me what was going on with Donna’s uncle?”

“Nope.” Jackie stood up to give herself some space. She didn’t need Steven being his protective self. She already knew she was going to have to hear it from Buddy about it and also about being alone in Steven’s room after her meltdown in his car the weekend before.

Buddy had taken her home and stayed with her until she fell asleep. He had gotten in trouble with his parents for coming home at dawn, but he told her they were mostly shocked that he had stayed out all night with a girl that they knew existed. Jackie had officially been cut off by her daddy as punishment for having a boy overnight—not that Jackie would feel the punishment considering she was only using the money she made from working at the Cheese Palace. It did suck that she couldn’t borrow the Lincoln, but Buddy and Eric were her main modes of transportation.

Steven offered rides whenever he was free and knew she needed one. Jackie would have preferred to limit their time together, but she had no real reason to decline his offers unless she wanted to walk or bus everywhere.

“ _Jackie_.” Steven’s jaw was set tightly, the muscle in his jaw tense.

“It’s no big deal!” Jackie threw her hands up and let them fall, slapping her thighs. “I told Donna and she told her mom. It was taken care of.” She turned back to him and smiled softly. “But thank you for looking out for me.”

“Of course, Doll.”

Doll. On instinct, the corners of Jackie’s lips lifted upwards and her cheeks bloomed with heat. Her chest warmed at the sound of his cheeky voice calling her by the familiar nickname. Unlike “Grasshopper”, which he used mostly when he was playing teacher, “Doll” was for any time he was feeling particularly soft towards her. The pet name’s origin wasn’t romantic. It was one he had used to first show her that he had her back, that he was there for her.

It had been a long while since he had called her that. Even before she was sent back to 1976. She hadn’t been Steven’s “Doll” in a long time.

* * *

Drumming his fingers against his cheek, Hyde tried to block out Jackie and Buddy’s conversation with Fez on the other side of the basement.

“So, when the offensive player is in the key for five seconds it ends up being a turnover and the ball goes to the other team.” Jackie tapped her notebook that she was using to show Fez the basketball court she had drawn.

“But why doesn’t that happen when we play in the driveway?” Fez asked, pouting in confusion.

“Because, once again Fez,” Buddy patted Fez’s shoulder, “that’s streetball. Completely different situation and there’s no key painted on the driveway.”

“Anyone else weirded out that _Jackie_ is teaching Fez about basketball?” Forman stage whispered to Hyde and Donna.

Hyde wasn’t that surprised, but he had that knowledge thanks to having dated her in the future. She didn’t play with them mostly due to wearing the wrong outfit to pal around in, having just done her nails, or not wanting to play with people that towered over her. But sometimes she would shoot hoops just for the hell of it. Donna shrugged and shook her head, flipping a page of her magazine.

“Not really.” Donna raised a brow at Forman’s rueful look. “She’s a cheerleader, Eric. She cheers at every varsity game and it’s easier to pick up than football. It would be weirder if she watched all of those games without knowing the rules.”

Buddy and Fez were going to the first home game for the Point Place Vikings, mostly because they were the only ones other than Jackie with enough school spirit to sit through a game, but also because they wanted to show Jackie some support.

Hyde had been blocking out Jackie’s presence ever since she pranced into the room in her cheerleading uniform. Kitty had seen her in her outfit and started gushing about how cute she was in her little uniform and had sat her down so she could tie her hair up in pigtails decorated with green and white ribbons. She had gotten so excited because Jackie reminded her of her cheerleading days.

It reminded him too much of how Kitty had fixed her hair up the morning after the Formans discovered Jackie had been staying with him in the basement. Reminded him of when the both of them were something more than whatever the hell they were at the moment.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the game, Donna?” Buddy asked again. He and Fez had even painted their faces with some green and white paint. Buddy had drawn on the number for the starting shooting guard, a senior named Tommy Larkin, who both Donna and Jackie━and Fez oddly enough━had gushed about how dreamy he was. It seemed Buddy shared the same sentiment.

“You’ll have to do all of your ogling without me,” Donna teased. “Eric and I are going to the movies.”

“Of course you are.” Hyde clasped his hands behind his head and smiled slyly at the couple. “Too bad the drive-ins are closed for the season right?”

“Shut up,” Donna muttered, averting her gaze.

“Well, we gotta get going.” Jackie hopped up from the couch’s arm and dusted off her skirt. “Kat will try to get on my case if I’m late and then Val will end up making a big deal about it.”

“Is she still mad because we left her out of the conversation at my parents’ dinner party?”

Jackie nodded and slipped on her white and blue chevron patterned jacket. “That and the guy she’s interested in won’t give her the time of day and I must have done something. I don’t know, Leslie didn’t know all of the details.”

“You don’t really seem to care,” Donna offered her observation.

“I don’t.” Jackie slung her purse over her shoulder. “It’s not _my_ fault if the guy she likes, likes me instead. What am I supposed to do, Donna? Be less desirable?”

Jackie rolled her eyes and opened the basement door, ushering Buddy and Fez through it before stepping out into the cold.

“So what are your plans for the night, Hyde?” Donna asked, failing at being nonchalant.

“You’re looking at it.” Hyde nodded his head toward the television and lifted up a beer. “I didn’t have a shift today, don’t care about my History paper, and everyone’s gone for the night. Just gonna burn out on my own.”

Forman shrugged and scratched the side of his head. “Where’s Kelso? Usually he’s over here, especially with Casey having come back home.”

“Cruisin’ for chicks,” Hyde answered, propping his feet on the spool table. “What else?”

Snow Prom was on Saturday and Kelso still needed to find a date. Pam Macy would have probably been his first choice after Jackie if it weren’t for his issues pitching a tent from a month ago. Kelso’s last attempt to change Jackie’s mind had blown up in his face when Jackie wouldn’t accept his candy dish gift. He had been so sure that it was going to work because Jackie loved weddings and it was a chance to prove that he still remembered the things she cared about.

“Why aren’t _you_ with him?” Donna asked, still failing at nonchalance as she flipped through her magazine. “Isn’t cruising like your bread and butter or something?”

“Not in the mood.” Hyde kept the tone of his voice nice and steady. He could play nonchalant a lot better than she could. “And you don’t go cruisin’ so close to a school dance. Next thing you know, the chick expects you to take her.”

“Well, if you’re not going out,” Forman stood up and held his hand out for Donna, “you might want to hide from my mom. She’s been hinting about you getting a haircut.”

The first time Hyde had tried to cut his own hair after he had moved in with the Formans, it had come out disastrous. One of the few things his mother had done for him was help him trim his hair so that it didn’t get long enough to fall over his eyes. It had properly grown back out by the time he entered his senior year and he was able to maintain it short after that, but recently he hadn’t felt like doing anything with it. His curls were back to their long and loose state from the winter of his sophomore year, before his mother had taken her personal hair shears to his head.

“It’s too cold for a haircut.”

“Waiting for spring to shed your winter coat?” Donna teased him as she grabbed her black pea coat. “See ya later, Hyde.”

And with that, Hyde was finally alone in the basement.

Ever since the hunting trip, Donna had been more interested in talking to him about his “Jackie Situation.” If she caught him alone she always wanted to talk to him about his feelings and pepper in warnings he didn’t need about how the group would be affected if he was just messing around.

Donna had also been worried about Kelso. She knew he would freak out, especially because he was still pursuing Jackie even though his advances were unwanted.

 _“I don’t even get why he still wants her,”_ Donna mused as she and Hyde shared a joint in her parents’ den. _“All he did while they were dating was complain and cheat. Do you think it’s an ego trip or something?”_

Hyde hadn’t understood it before either. Without Jackie, Kelso was free to sleep with whoever he wanted and he didn’t have anyone on his back about anything. He had even told Forman that he didn’t think what he had with Jackie was real but still continued the relationship.

But then Hyde had the opportunity to actually know Jackie and to be loved by her and he could understand why someone would want to keep that for themselves. No one had ever looked at him the way Jackie looked at him. No one touched him the way Jackie did, like she was holding on to something priceless she didn’t want to lose.

It was never supposed to get that far with Jackie. He was supposed to take what he could get and imprint the taste of her into his memory when she decided to cut him loose. But it just kept going on and on and Jackie poured out all of her love into him like he was a bottomless pit she was trying to miraculously fill.

And it terrified him to think that once he got comfortable and accustomed to having that, that it could easily be taken away. Because wasn’t that what Jackie did? As soon as things didn’t go her way, she pulled away, depriving him of her as punishment.

That was exactly what it felt like she was doing at the moment, punishing him.

He didn’t know what his offense had been but Jackie of 1976 was acting odd with him. Some days she acted like everything was normal and that they were friends, but then there were days where she acted like he was part of the furniture. He had no clue where they stood and it was starting to piss him off.

The uncertainty was having him wish for the days when Jackie would just talk and talk until he had to pretend to fall asleep to get her to stop.

Hyde wasn’t used to this kind of treatment from Jackie. Even when they disliked each other they had acknowledged each other’s presence. He couldn’t even compare the dirty feeling to how it felt when he was the dirty secret of other girls in Jackie’s circle. It wasn’t as if Jackie treated him badly or ignored him in public. It was the opposite.

Jackie was his friend and spoke with him when they were around others, but became sort of distant when it was just the two of them.

The punishment was getting old, especially when he had no clue what he could have done that was so wrong in 1976 Jackie’s mind.

* * *

Jackie smiled broadly, fighting the urge to blink when the light flashed in her eyes. She was just glad that her hairspray had held and her hair hadn’t frizzed up by the time they took the Snow King and Queen yearbook photos.

The Winter Formal, also known by the much cuter name of Snow Prom, was the only formal event that underclassmen had a shot at winning one of the titles. Just like in her original 1976, Jackie had campaigned for Snow Queen, but the results were different this time around.

Instead of runner up, Jackie won Snow Queen alongside Buddy who had actually attended Snow Prom this time around. The two of them attended the dance together and she wore a red gown to match Buddy’s red dress shirt because it was his favorite color.

Jackie had run her campaign under the impression that she could be losing again. She hadn’t thought she did anything different, but when she actually looked back on how she had spent the past four months it made more sense. Buddy had encouraged her to join different committees and Donna had her do a car care demonstration for one of her clubs━not that Jackie could recall which club, just that it was one of her girl only clubs. She was a lot more involved with her classmates outside of the jocks and not only during the campaign period.

It also helped that she was piggybacking off of Buddy who was truly loved by everyone. He hadn’t even campaigned, which made Jackie wonder if Michael would have even won Snow King in her original timeline if Buddy hadn’t dropped out of school in the winter of 1976. As handsome as Michael was, he had nothing on sweet and charming Buddy.

He also didn’t have Jackie insisting that he campaign the weeks up to the dance.

“You look good in a crown,” Jackie complimented Buddy, adjusting the plastic crown on his head so that it didn’t muss up his hair.

“You’re not going to make us call you Your Highness now, are you?” Donna teased them, smacking Jackie’s leg with the floaty periwinkle material of her skirt. Jackie was glad Donna had taken her advice on what colors to stick to for her gown.

“Only until the end of the dance.” Jackie placed her hands on her hips and turned her nose up. “So until eleven.”

“My liege.” Eric mock bowed to Buddy who grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and posed, holding his head up high in mock regality.

“We should find Fez so he can take more photos for his letter home.” Jackie linked her arm with Buddy’s as they circled around the gym looking for their friend. They had left him with Steven when they were crowned, but the two of them had then disappeared.

If she remembered it right, Steven would be in Coach Ferguson’s office. And then a tornado would hit. The joys of living in the Midwest. It was likely to come around again considering the abnormal heat they had to suffer through the past few days right after it had been unbearably cold.

“Let’s check in here.” Jackie knocked softly on the door in the pattern that everyone used on Steven’s bedroom door so he knew it was one of them and not Kitty or Red. She waited a brief moment and the door creaked open enough just for Steven’s face to be seen.

“Are you going to let us in or what?” Buddy asked cheekily.

“Depends,” Steven answered, opening the door wider. “You got anything for me?”

“Damn. I thought my cute face would be enough.” Buddy snapped his fingers in faux dejection.

“Unfortunately for you, you’re not my type,” Steven shrugged his shoulders but let them in regardless.

“I’m not even surprised you picked the lock.” Immediately upon entering Jackie knew Fez wasn’t in the office. The smell of his cologne would have given him away. Jackie turned to Steven with her hands on her hips. Leaving Fez alone at a school function was a horrible idea. “Where’s Fezzie?”

“Relax. He’s with Kelso.” Steven slumped into Coach Ferguson’s plush leather desk chair. “Probably trying to watch Kelso and his date from Sacred Heart make out.”

Buddy sighed and rolled his eyes. He wasn’t a fan of Fez spending any time with Michael. “Well, I’m going to go look for him.”

As soon as Buddy stepped out of the door, Coach Ferguson caught him leaving. They heard Buddy make up an excuse about looking for his friend and Steven sat down under Coach Ferguson’s desk and pulled Jackie down between his legs so her back was pressed to his chest. A second later, the office lights were turned on and they heard Buddy continue to lie about how he had been the only one inside.

“See? Just me, looking for my friend.”

“I should have known better than to assume you would be up to anything, Mr. Morgan.” Steven snorted lowly, just loud enough that Jackie was only able to hear it because his mouth was right by her ear. “But you should be heading back into━”

“Coach Ferguson,” Vice Principal Cole interrupted him. “There’s been a tornado warning announced. Code Red. I’m assuming that it’s dangerous. Gather any meandering students into the shelter of the gym.”

“A t-tornado?” Was the last thing Jackie heard before Coach Ferguson closed the office door and locked it back up.

“How does the Vice Principal not know what the codes mean?” Jackie grumbled, the tension leaving her body caused her to lean further back into Steven’s hold.

“Comfortable there, Princess?”

Jackie tensed up and scooted forward so that she could pick herself up from the ground. “I’m a queen today, actually,” she shot back snottily, dusting off the back of her gown.

Her parents had insisted on paying for her new gown and Jackie had given in considering that her pay from the Cheese Palace wasn’t enough for her to be able to afford the hit a nice dress would cost her. If it weren’t for her experience with shopping sales and stretching out her dollars from when her father had gone to prison and her mother had abandoned her, Jackie would have been lost on how to make her paycheck last her. Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about bills and food.

“Well, tornado or no tornado,” Steven pulled himself up and dusted off the seat of his pants, “I'm going to fumigate Coach Ferguson’s office. You in?”

“Yeah,” Jackie smiled softly at him and took a seat in one of the spare leather chairs.

Ten minutes later, Jackie was blowing rings of smoke up into the air while Steven rummaged through a box of confiscated items.

“Who brings a nudie calendar to school?” Jackie coughed out her laughter as she grabbed the only pink item from the box, a water pistol. “Who would be that depraved?”

They both stared at each other for a moment and then in a deadpan said at the same time, “Timmy Thompson.”

“I think he took his pants off right before Vice Principal Cole announced Snow King and Queen. Why is he always doing that?”

“That explains why Coach Ferguson didn’t catch me sneaking out of the gym.” Steven pocketed his switchblade and put his airhorn to the side. “I think half the stuff in here belongs to me or Kelso.”

“Why did you have an air horn in class?” It was a question Jackie never got to ask the last time they were in Coach Ferguson’s office during Snow Prom 1976. She had been too upset about losing the title to focus on the random items Steven had confiscated by Coach Ferguson.

“I actually got this stuff taken away last year.” Steven tossed the box back into the bottom drawer of the desk. “I used the air horn to scare Forman every time he tried to climb the rope in gym class.”

“He can’t even do a pull-up, how was he supposed to climb the rope?” Jackie cackled much more exuberantly than normal with the marijuana coursing through her.

“Yeah.” Steven grinned smugly. “They used the trauma of my air horn as an excuse to just pass him along.”

“What do you think the others are doing right now?”

Steven exhaled and leaned forward in his seat in thought. “Forman and Donna are probably playing footsie somewhere. That is if Forman isn’t freaking out about the tornado and doing that thing where his voice gets all squeaky.”

“Highly likely.”

“Kelso is probably in the middle of convincing the Sacred Heart girl that screwing would be a good way to wait out the tornado.”

“He’s probably telling her some line about it being their last chance to do it before they die.” Jackie rolled her eyes and took a pull from the joint and blew out another set of smoke rings in Steven’s face.

“How are you doing that?”

“I’ve done them with cigars before.” Jackie grimaced. “Cigars make you look fancy, but they taste like crap.”

“Are they worse than cigarettes?”

“Yeah.” Jackie nodded, remembering how much Steven hated the cigars Michael had brought to celebrate Betsy’s birth. “They are. Here. Let me show you. You just kind of suck in your cheeks like this with the smoke in your mouth and make an O shape with your mouth and then just kind of push the smoke out with your tongue. You don’t inhale the smoke you’re blowing rings with.”

“That’s kind of a waste.” Steven frowned. “Don’t be wastin’ any of my stash. Inhale what I give you.”

“Do you think Buddy found Fez?”

“Probably.” Steven leaned back in his seat. “Fez is probably clinging to him and crying about how he is going to die a virgin.” He gave her a mischievous grin. “Maybe Buddy will help him out.”

“Oh, stop!” Jackie shoved his shoulder. “It’s not funny. And I doubt that’s how Fez pictured losing his virginity. At least not from that end.”

“Oh.” Steven’s frown deepened and Jackie narrowed her eyes at him and grinned triumphantly at his discomfort.

“Yeah. _Oh_.” Jackie snatched the joint back. “I know way too much about our friends. Buddy and Donna are kind of similar when they’re drunk. They get so raunchy.”

“Speaking of drunks,” Steven cleared his throat, “is your ma finally back from her booze cruise?”

“Don’t be so crass, Steven,” she scolded him. She never liked it when Steven was so blunt about her parents’ faults. “But yeah, she is. She helped me pick out this dress.”

Steven gave her a once over and Jackie wished she had decided on wearing a shawl. The dress was almost an exact copy of the white one she wore for Snow Prom 1976 but in red. The formal dress showed off more skin than the dresses she wore in the past, but with her curves, though small, being more developed she had more options than the modest and innocent gowns she wore at fifteen.

“It’s nicer than the dress she picked out for your Sweet Sixteen.” Steven smirked at her in a way that always caused her cheeks and chest to heat up. “Much nicer.”

“Yeah. I think she wanted to move things along with Buddy.” Jackie kicked off her heels and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her feet on the edge of the seat. “The more I tell her we’re just friends, the more she wants to push us together. It’s driving me insane.”

“She hasn’t picked up the signs that she’s barking up the wrong tree?”

“I don’t think she would care.”

With the way things were going in her parents’ marriage, Jackie wouldn’t be surprised if her mother expected her to believe that marriage wasn’t for love. Wasn’t that what she was proving by staying with her father and having affairs instead of just divorcing him if she was no longer satisfied being married to him? 

Jackie wanted to believe that there was a time her parents could have been in love or so deeply infatuated with each other that they wanted to be with each other more than anything in the world. But now it was hard to look at them and not see the things that had caused it all to fall apart before Jack Burkhart was sent to prison.

“I think she’d just tell me to make sure my kids belong to my husband,” Jackie whispered, watching as the joint started to canoe on her. Steven took it from her and wet the tips of his fingers with his tongue to fix it.

She wanted to believe her parents loved her. Her father didn’t have time for her, but it was because he was always busy with work. Her mother abandoned her, but she had come back and she had tried. Pam was at least trying to support her more financially when she returned to Point Place.

But then there was Kitty Forman who baked her cookies when she was studying for a test. Red who taught her about cars and let her play her music while they fixed up the Toyota. And even Bob Pinciotti who had always made sure to buy her a bag of beef jerky when he knew she and Donna were synced up from living together and craving salty snacks.

There was Donna who, even back in 1979, helped her make flashcards and made her practice quizzes and snuck pamphlets for the community college into her purse when she found out about Jackie’s struggle with deciding on what to do about college. She was the only one that knew Jackie’s real SAT score and instead of nagging her about not acting in a way that reflected it, she stopped bagging on her about her tastes in literature that she read in her free time.

And then there was Steven. Just everything Steven. He was the first one to make her feel safe when her world was falling apart.

“You’ve got too much love in you to end up like that,” he said before taking a long pull, averting his gaze. How was it that 1976 Steven knew her exact line of thought with just one comment? Was this another thing she had missed out on when she had first decided that he couldn’t have her heart?

_“It might be a problem,” Steven had told her the night she moved back in with her mother, “how much love you got in you.”_

_“Yeah, but that’s why I give you so much of it.” Jackie wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close, sharing his body heat. “Equilibrium, you know? You need more and I have too much so I’m going to fill you up until we’re both evened out.”_

_Steven had smiled softly at her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Just be careful who you share it with, Doll.”_

“Sometimes I feel like I could disappear and they wouldn’t even notice.” Her Steven had understood that. Had noticed the non-curfews, the lack of phone calls to the Formans asking her home for dinner. And that had been back when the only communication they really had was when he was pounding her into the thin mattress on his cot.

Scooting closer using the wheels on Coach Ferguson’s desk chair, Steven brushed a curl out of Jackie’s face. “I’d notice if you disappeared.” The somber look on his face melted into a sly grin. “You’re too loud not to notice.”

“Shut up!” Jackie giggled, rolling her eyes. On instinct she took his hand in hers, lightly skimming her fingers up and down in the grooves of his fingers.

“You know,” Steven curled his fingers, trapping hers, “I didn’t figure you for a red dress at a formal kind of girl.”

“Oh yeah?” Jackie rolled her eyes, but the playful smile remained on her face. He wasn’t wrong about that. She only wore red to Point Place High’s Valentine’s Day dance in 1978 and that wasn’t a formal. “And what color did you figure I was?”

“Some sort of shade of purple.” With his free hand, Steven propped his chin up as he leaned in, elbow on his knee. His face was blank as he continued to stare at her.

“Purple? Jackie murmured, her smile melting with her confusion.

She wasn’t sure if he was referring to her lilac dress from the Spring Formal━their Underclass Prom━or to the deep plum of the dress shirt he was currently wearing. There was no way he could know she had planned on wearing something in the same shade of lilac to Steven’s senior prom before the nurse incident had occurred. It was in a different style, but the same shade as the dress from their first dance together. She kept it in the back of her closet for her own senior prom.

It was supposed to be their do over. The one that wasn’t going to happen.

“Why would you say━?”

The doorknob rattled and then there was a loud knock. Jackie squeezed Steven’s fingers as she turned at the sudden loud noise.

“Jackie?” Buddy’s muffled voice came through the office door.

“Buddy?” Jackie stood up and unlocked the office door. “Buddy are you okay?”

The whites of Buddy’s eyes were red, but it was safe to assume from the trembling of his lower lip that it wasn’t from any activity like the one Jackie and Hyde were doing.

“Yeah. The tornado just moved on to Illinois. Can we go home, now?”

“Yeah of course, Buddy.” Jackie turned back to look at Steven. He was still sitting in his seat, forearms on his knees and rubbing his fingers together. The way he slid one hand’s fingers into the grooves between the fingers of his other hand had Jackie’s fingers tingling. She picked up her heels and gave him a small wave. “Bye Steven.”

With a tight lipped expression, Steven gave her a careless wave. Jackie shut the door behind her and followed Buddy down the hall, jogging to catch up with the speed he was walking in.

She knew she had to ask him again what was going on but she could barely focus on Buddy’s odd mood when her mind was still back in Coach Ferguson’s office with Steven.

How could she let herself be alone with him again? What on earth made her talk about her parents? Why did she hold his hand? Why were all of those things just so easy to do with Steven?

Curling up in the passenger seat of Buddy’s Firebird, Jackie leaned her head against the window, pulling her knees to her chest.

_I’m so messed up._

* * *

There was a strange divide among his friends and Hyde didn’t know what he was supposed to do about it. Currently he sat backwards on one of the church folding chairs, half listening to Kelso chirp on about Christmas specials and half listening to Donna complain to Forman about playing a _Wise Man_ and not a _Wise Woman_. As if it mattered. None of the families watching the pageant were going to think she was a man.

All Hyde wanted to do was find one of the empty rooms and start a circle with the _frankincense_ that Leo had brought him when he came to help out with building the set. Maybe then his friends would start to act normal again.

“Hey, Shepard.” Forman waved his hand in front of Fez’s face, who had been staring into space the whole time. “Why aren’t you hanging out with the Richie Richies?” He hitched a thumb at Buddy and Jackie who were whispering to each other on stage. “You’re usually joined at the hip with Buddy.”

“Why would it be weird that I’m not hanging out with Buddy?” Fez asked quickly. He laughed nervously and tapped his foot in a quick tempo. “We don’t do everything together. We can spend time apart without it being weird.”

“No, it’s just much more normal for you to stress everything you say,” Hyde commented sarcastically, narrowing his eyes at Fez’s behavior. “And speak slower. You know we can’t understand you when you speak that fast.”

“Yeah, if you’re going to talk that fast at least bring Buddy over here to help interpret for us.” Kelso shook his head as if his suggestion was the obvious solution. Waving his arms over his head he shouted across the room, “Hey, Buddy!”

“Kelso!” Fez yanked Kelso’s arms down and waved nervously to Buddy and Jackie. Buddy looked at him impassively before turning his back on them and going back to his discussion with Jackie.

“Well, that was weird.” Kelso guffawed as he rubbed his arm where Fez had slapped him.

“Nothing weird is going on!” Fez exclaimed. “Aiii…I should go. The Erdmans said I had to be home at exactly seven if I wanted to make a call to my parents.”

“I’ll give you a ride. If I leave now I can catch Rudolph.” Kelso clapped his hand on Fez’s shoulder. Before leaving he turned to Forman and asked him one more time why he couldn’t be a Space Wise Man.

“Just go home, Kelso.” Forman pointed at the door, fed up with all of the space comments. He slumped into his seat and stared up at the ceiling. “Do you think Santa will bring Kelso some common sense this year?”

“I don’t think even Santa could perform that kind of miracle,” Donna joked as she flipped through the script for the Christmas Pageant. “So, Hyde. How are things going with the wifey?”

Winter Break had started after Snow Prom and Donna was even more relentless about her questions. She had found out that he had waited out the tornado with Jackie, only Jackie, and had assumed something had happened.

She had assumed correctly and Hyde could only assume that Jackie had said something about it and now Donna was playing detective to gather information from both parties.

“Whatever it is,” Forman wrinkled his nose in disgust, “just remember that you’re Joseph and the _Virgin_ Mary so leave any of your nonsense for after the Christmas Pageant.”

“Eric.” Donna smiled at him but her brows were drawn down in confusion. “Jackie already had—“

Forman cut her off with a tutting noise. “I would rather not get into the details about it ‘cause it’s Jackie.” He shivered in disgust. “But with how Buddy goes about it, it’s like it never counted and that is just a burn we should let simmer.”

Buddy had been in a bad mood all week and his favorite punching bag was Kelso. Kelso had tried to make a comment about his and Jackie’s sex life again when the guys were hanging out and Buddy just shut him down.

 _“You didn’t fuck Jackie, Kelso,”_ Buddy had sneered, his lips curling in distaste. _“She fucked you.”_ Everyone had looked at him weirdly until he finished with, “ _If you’re the only one getting off, you don’t get to lord it over a girl. Jackie finished you off. She fucked you. Not the other way around.”_

Kelso had sputtered some nonsense about Jackie’s new boyfriend being a tool and not understanding how sex worked and Buddy had had enough.

 _“For the last time, I’m not dating Jackie. I’m fucking gay, you asshole!”_ Buddy had shouted in the basement. _“You’re the only one here too stupid to not have realized that.”_

They were all lucky that Red and Kitty hadn’t been home during the big blow up. The Formans were pretty traditional so the gang was kind of wary about them finding out about Buddy’s sexuality.

“Nothing’s going on.” Hyde just wanted everyone to leave him alone about whatever the hell was going on with Jackie. It wasn’t this complicated before. It was like for every step he took in the right direction with Jackie, he ended up falling five steps back.

“Go make sure Leo is doing his job, Eric.” Donna waved Eric away.

“But, I wanna━”

“Eric. _Go._ ”

Forman rolled his eyes and stood up. “Fine.”

As soon as they were alone, Donna adjusted herself in her seat so that she was directly in front of Hyde.

“I’m not talking about it, Donna.”

“We have to talk about it, Hyde.” Donna gave him a reassuring smile. “If we don’t talk about it, we can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that I’m not what Jackie Burkhart wants?” He was starting to accept that whatever had happened in his original timeline to have Jackie Burkhart look his way was a rare event that couldn’t be replicated.

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Jackie Burkhart doesn’t think that she’s what _you_ want?”

“Yeah, right,” Hyde scoffed. “The girl thinks everyone wants her.”

“Yeah, the past few months have been oddly eye opening about why she would be so disgustingly conceited about that.” Donna frowned and then shook her head. “But that’s not important. Just remember that Jackie has only had one boyfriend because she doesn’t like the concept of hooking up. She probably thinks that if she got involved with you that it wouldn’t go much farther than that. And let’s face it, you don’t have the best track record.”

_Ouch._

It looked like no matter what timeline he was in Hyde couldn’t escape the fact that Jackie was looking at years down the line and not at what was right in front of her. Even if he had finally settled with what he wished he had told her, the thought of everything she wanted still made his stomach churn.

“Then why are you even bothering with talking about us as a possibility?”

“Because I see how you two dinks look at each other and it’s getting fucking ridiculous.” Donna shook her head again and scooted her chair closer. “I’ve never seen you look at a girl the way you look at Jackie. It weirded me out at first.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Donna sighed and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “I’m talking about the unpleasantness from last year.”

“I thought you forgave me for that.” Donna had never brought it up again in his original timeline, not even after she caught him making out with Jackie. It had been settled after Spring Formal their sophomore year that she was over it.

“Doesn’t stop it from having been unpleasant, Hyde.” Donna scowled at him. “But we’re straying away from the subject.”

“Well do carry on back to the subject,” Hyde chirped sarcastically. It was already weird that Donna was trying to help him out. The whole role reversal was throwing him for a loop. Usually if he had to talk to anyone, Donna wasn’t in the small circle of people he had heart to hearts with about his personal feelings.

“You never looked at me that way,” Donna stated and waited for his response.

Hyde stared blankly at her, not playing along with her wanting a reaction from him. If she wanted to talk, she was going to just have to say it all at once.

Donna tucked strands of hair behind both her ears and licked her lips as she thought about how to explain her thoughts. Sighing, Hyde rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger, waiting for her to continue.

“Besides the fact that I love Eric,” Donna spoke slowly, “I never took you seriously because you didn’t seem serious. It was like you could take it or leave it and like it wasn’t even about me for _me_.”

Hyde perked up at that. It sounded exactly like something Jackie had said about Fez before and even Kelso after she and Hyde had reconciled. It was much different than a discussion Donna of his original timeline had with him.

_“I didn’t think Jackie was your type,” she had accused him days after she had caught him kissing Jackie._

_“And what exactly did you think my type was?” He had asked defensively. Donna wasn’t like Forman who could accept that he thought Jackie was a hot chick and move on, no real explanation needed._

_Donna had just raised a brow at him and gave him a look. She didn’t need to voice her thought out loud for him to know where she was heading._

_“That was three years ago,” Hyde deadpanned. “And opinions of people change.”_

_Despite years of friendship, Hyde didn’t really think he and Donna were a good matchup. They were a pairing he knew could have fun together and when it was time to say their goodbyes when she wanted to explore the world there would be no hard feelings. She was someone he knew he could let go of._

_And he did. With an ease that should have unsettled him. Especially when he thought about how much he and Jackie had clung to each other despite the backlash from their friends when they found out._

_Letting go of Jackie wasn’t even an option._

_“Yeah.” Donna laughed bitterly. Hyde had never expected her to side with cheating and abandoning Kelso, but there she was proving more loyal to someone she knew for years than the girl that was always there for her and took her side and leant her ear when she needed one. “Clearly, considering you’re fooling around with_ Jackie _.”_

Supportive Donna was something he still needed to get used to. The Donna of his original timeline had taken almost a year to accept their relationship, so a Donna that was trying to set him up with Jackie was like something out of a Twilight Zone rerun.

It made him wonder about their relationship in his original timeline. Did the Donna of this timeline care more about Jackie than the Donna of the other? And why would that be?

“But you don’t act like that with Jackie.” Donna looked past Hyde’s shoulder to the stage. He didn’t need to turn around to know that she was eyeing Jackie. “You’re...softer.”

“I’m not soft.”

“Okay, whatever you say.” Donna rolled her eyes. “But you are.”

“Whatever.”

“You can pretend all you want but you are,” Donna insisted. “You’re more...careful around her. Like you want her around but don’t want to scare her off or something. You didn’t really do that with me. Or care when it came to other girls. Which by the way, I _know_ you haven’t been hooking up with anyone and that’s the biggest difference. There’s no keeping your options open.”

“How would you even know that?”

“You think guys are the only ones that talk in locker rooms?” Donna smirked at him and gave him a patronizing look like she thought he was adorably naive. “Remember Jackie’s problems with Kat Peterson? Well someone has been trying to get to know someone else and apparently that someone else hasn’t been giving her the time of day and she assumes Jackie is the problem. Which I think she assumes correctly. Although I think she’s more pissed off that a sophomore has your attention over her, a senior and the most popular girl in our school.” Donna snorted. “Cheerleaders. Kat kept talking like I wasn’t even standing there!”

“Peterson’s overrated.” He had been subtly avoiding her whenever she tried to corner him when he was alone and—more importantly—when no one she deemed important was around.

Hyde had been there, done that and despite his bolster, hadn’t known his own worth when he had fooled around with Kat.

Despite her claims and defenses about not being able to take him out in public, Jackie was the one that held his hand so openly and looked at him with imploring brown eyes. She interlocked her fingers with his in crowded school hallways and dared him to shake her off. When he had asked her if she was sure about what she was doing, she had scoffed and asked him if he still thought he was too cool for her, called him out for his weeks of fooling around with a “square.”

If he hadn’t been so caught up in her having been Kelso’s first, he might have realized how proud she was to call him hers and how much she loved him a lot sooner.

And being Jackie’s destination was worth more than secret rolls in the hay with some random girl that would use him as some roadside attraction to break the monotony of small town life.

“Yeah, she might have _hinted_ ,” Donna made air quotes with her fingers, “to Jackie that you were only someone she should fool around with before Jackie considered looking at more serious options.”

“Oh.” And despite knowing Jackie didn’t slum for fun, the idea of her doing so made his stomach feel hollow.

“And Jackie told Kat that if she didn’t back off and mind her own business that she would be telling the whole school her splits look awkward ‘cause she has a dick.” Donna burst out into laughter loud enough to echo in the church auditorium. “That probably means something.”

Jackie’s heels clacked across the linoleum floor and she sat down on the table they had set in the middle of the room. “You guys sound like you’re having fun.”

“We were until you showed up.” The words were out of his mouth before he had even processed them in his mind. He closed his eyes behind his shades and pressed his lips together tightly as he realized that he had lashed out defensively after letting Donna speak to him so candidly about something regarding him.

He opened his eyes to Donna’s shell shocked face. Her mouth had dropped open and her eyes widened in horror at what he had just told Jackie. She was probably regretting their heart to heart about his love life.

“Whatever.” Jackie shifted in her seat on the table so that she was facing Donna and not him. “Buddy and I are going to do some last minute shopping so we’re going to head out. Wanna join us, Donna?”

“I gotta head home.” Donna cringed and smiled weakly. “My parents want to spend some family time.”

“Oh. If you guys make gingerbread cookies can you save me some?”

“I’ll try and hide some from my dad.”

Jackie slid off the table and walked back over to Buddy. The both of them waved goodbye to everyone on their way out and Donna waved back, flashing them a grin. As soon as they were out of the room she punched Hyde in the arm.

“What the hell, you dillhole?”

“I can honestly say that I wasn’t even thinking.” Hyde scowled as he rubbed his arm. Donna frogged him way harder than any of the guys could, but he deserved it at the moment.

“You really weren't.” Donna pushed off from her chair and grabbed her coat from the back of it. “Stuff like that’s not funny anymore.”

“You really like Jackie, huh?”

“Well, yeah.” Donna’s cheeks flushed pink and she looked away as she buttoned up her coat. “She’s spoiled and bratty and puts me down as much as I do her, but I’ve never had a girlfriend that cares about me like she does. Actually.” Donna frowned and stuffed her hands in her coat pocket. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a girlfriend before Jackie.”

“Maybe _you_ should date Jackie.” Hyde waggled his eyebrows at her. “That would be fun.”

“Shut up.” Donna glared at him but after a beat it melted into a mischievous grin. “But keep talking to her like that and I’ll have a better chance at making out with her than you.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad.” Hyde nodded pensively. “I can make that sacrifice. Pretty sure Forman can too.”

“You guys are sick.” Donna scratched her cheek and cleared her throat. “So...did you get her a Christmas present?”

She really did suck at being nonchalant. The curse of being a redhead had her face flushing for almost every emotion and giving her away. Hyde just stared blankly at her eager expression, not giving anything away to her.

Donna rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue at him. “If you got her something it would up your chances at meeting her under the mistletoe. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Whatever.”

“But try not to be an asshole.” Donna sighed and took her beanie from her pocket and placed it on her head. “I don’t want to spend Christmas with Jackie complaining about what a jerk you are.”

Fortunately for Hyde, Donna had turned away from him to call out to Forman. He couldn’t help but flinch at her words and remember that Jackie had done exactly that during Christmas of 1978.

“Hey, dudes!”

Hyde and Donna looked back towards the stage where Leo had finished setting up the barn for the pageant.

“Can’t remember where you parked your car, Leo?” Hyde asked, knowing already what Leo was likely to ask.

“Whoa, man.” Leo looked at him with wide, shocked eyes. “Do you have the gift?”

“No, you’re just predictable,” Hyde muttered. It wasn’t actually true. Leo was an odd element of the new 1976 in the way that only about a third of the time he did things exactly as he did in Hyde’s original timeline. “Let’s look for your car, man.”

* * *

Jackie had dealt with a broken heart before. She had even dealt with someone else’s broken heart before.

Jackie was the type to cry and cry her eyes out in private and then pretend that nothing happened. Donna was the strong type that never cried. The first time Jackie saw Donna’s eyes well up with tears, she had thought Donna was sick because usually when Donna was hurt she did the same thing Steven did and either acted unaffected or covered it up with anger. With the both of them she needed to badger them until they acknowledged how they felt about something.

She wasn’t sure what to do with Buddy.

Buddy called what they were doing _platonic cuddling_. Jackie would have let him borrow one of her stuffed animals, but Buddy said he needed warmth and a heartbeat and he would rather have it in the safety of his bedroom than to do something reckless.

Never in her life did she think she would ever be spooning with someone that she wasn’t dating. She had barely cuddled with Michael and that had been mostly her forcing it on him so she wouldn’t feel so empty after sex. He preferred cuddling as a pre-sex activity in the hopes it got her affectionate enough to be in the mood.

With Steven, cuddling was a new experience for him but one he had welcomed with slight confusion. He had accepted his fate and decided he wasn’t going to argue with a girl pressing herself naked against him. Eventually touching evolved into something they did all of the time. Little bits of tactile affection sprinkled into every moment ended up making their separation difficult. It wasn’t until she had broken up with Steven that she realized just how much contact they were always in.

Touch was a language she and Steven spoke well. There was such an ease in it, such a natural rhythm and flow in the way they moved and it was scaring her how easy it was to fall back into the same pattern with 1976 Steven.

She was starting to forget that there was a time that they were never like that.

“Buddy?” Jackie poked at his fingers that were clasped together against her stomach. He hummed against her shoulder to let her know she had his attention. “What are your thoughts on time travel?”

“Like on Star Trek?” He mumbled, still drowsy from their two-man circle. “I like the idea of it. But do I think it’s possible? Not in our lifetime. Maybe not even in your grandchild’s lifetime.”

She stroked his knuckles as they talked. Buddy’s hands were smooth and soft. The hands of someone that never had to work. “If you were sent back in time, would you change anything about your life?”

“I would tell my past self not to bother with that ascot phase.”

“What if you couldn’t talk to your past self? Like you were your past self?”

“Oh.” Buddy loosened his hold and turned so he was on his back. Jackie wiggled until she was no longer on top of his arm. “Still the ascot thing and I wouldn’t bother with having sex with Shelly. Wouldn’t need to do that again.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“I guess I would also not put the magnesium strip into the flame before Elliot Fischer finished reading the directions.” Buddy closed his eyes and frowned to himself. “He looked so weird without eyebrows.”

“Yeah, they didn’t even grow back right.”

Jackie stared up at Buddy’s popcorn ceiling and breathed in and exhaled slowly. She had been back in the past for five months and this was the first time she had spoken about time travel out loud. She didn’t even trust writing down her thoughts in her diary, just in case her mother got it in her tequila soaked brain that it was okay to go through Jackie’s personal items.

“You wouldn’t take back that kiss with Eric? Or telling Fez you liked him?”

While Jackie had been spilling her guts with the smoke she was exhaling at Snow Prom, Buddy had taken the plunge and told Fez that he liked him as more than a friend. The both of them had been holding hands as Fez was freaking out and Buddy felt the moment was right.

Unfortunately, Fez didn’t feel the same and had told Buddy that he was only interested in girls.

“No.” Buddy sighed and turned his head to smile softly at her. “It hurts to not be liked back, but in those moments I was me. Truly and openly me. Besides. It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Just all of the cliches.”

Jackie laughed softly, reaching her hand between them to grasp his. He squeezed her hand back and interlocked their fingers. She wasn’t so sure about it at first, but Buddy was always seeking touch where he could get it. Hand holding and hugs were readily available to her if she wanted them, but they were a rarity for Buddy.

“So what about you?” Buddy asked, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. “Would you go back and never date Kelso?”

Jackie giggled at how close to home Buddy came to her situation. She had terminated the relationship sooner than in the time she had come from, but she wouldn’t have completely gotten rid of her relationship with Michael.

“He was really sweet in the beginning.” Jackie sighed and curled her body toward Buddy, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “And I was lucky, you know? I was barely fifteen and back in public school for the first time in years and the most beautiful boy in school wanted me. And for a time he was my best friend.”

“You never shared the really important stuff with him though.”

“No I didn’t,” she admitted. “But he helped me forget that my life wasn’t perfect. He helped me with the illusion that I was living a charmed life and he was a great distraction. Michael was like one of those perfectly gift wrapped packages that just had to hold something wonderful inside. It just took me a while to realize that the gift tag didn’t have my name on it. He wasn’t meant for me.”

Michael was all puppy love and he had a special place in her heart for being her first boyfriend and her first experiences. He was even special for having introduced her to the people that would eventually be her found family. So no, she wouldn’t take Michael back or be with him ever again, but she wouldn’t do him the disservice of thinking of him as a big mistake.

“So you’re still looking for your own perfectly gift wrapped package?”

“Nope!” Jackie chirped. “Presents are always welcomed, but shiny stuff is meant for pretty necklaces or cars not for what I wanna feel. I wanna feel like I’m coming home.”

When she was younger and had dated Michael she thought love was supposed to sparkle, that it was supposed to shine. She had carried that feeling with her because only the best would do.

But then she fell in love with Steven and it wasn’t sparkly and shiny. Kissing Steven was like coming back indoors and warming her toes in front of the fireplace after escaping a snowy day. It was like freshly laundered linens after a hot bath.

There was no blinding glitter or artificial sparkle. It was real and warm—hot like the summer they first hooked up and enough to cut through the cold and melt her pretty, plastic life and reveal it for the junk heap it actually was.

“Makes sense.” Buddy nodded. “I think I want that too.”

“Sounds cozy, huh?”

“Yeah, it does. So why aren’t you going for it?”

Jackie pulled away, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not even trying with Hyde!” Buddy chuckled and rolled his eyes. “You just cried about things you want for the future and ignored your own feelings.”

“Hey!” Jackie sat up, annoyed with the turn of conversation. “Those things are important to me.”

“So that’s it?” Buddy sat up so he was on equal ground with her. “Jackie no one said your dreams aren’t important, but you’re not even taking the chance.”

“Why should I? Why should I settle for less than guarantees?”

“Jackie do you even know who you’re talking to?” Buddy scoffed and he turned sad, disappointed eyes on her. “I don’t get guarantees.”

Jackie bit her lip and averted her gaze to Buddy’s desk and telescope.

“Everything’s a risk. And marriage isn’t even an option for me.” There was a watery quality to Buddy’s voice that Jackie didn’t like. His sniffling after Snow Prom had already felt like needles being pushed into her ribs. Always smiling, cheerful Buddy wasn’t supposed to get sad.

Jackie pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest. Buddy had his own box in his closet, but instead of trinkets and memories of an ex-boyfriend he had magazines and articles following the Gay Rights movement.

“I’m not even allowed to play the game and you’re benching yourself out of fear that you’re going to lose.” Buddy laughed bitterly, ruffling his hair. “I would give anything to eventually find someone that felt like home and you’re running away from someone that has an open vacancy for you right now that I _know_ you like.”

“You just don’t understand.” Jackie bowed her head, tucking it into the cradle of her arms and knees.

“I really don’t, Jackie.” Buddy sighed and Jackie felt the bed dip as he moved so he was sitting right next to her. “You’re looking at someday, maybe. But I can see you being happy right now. I do see you happy right now. Every single goddamn time Hyde smiles at you...you fucking radiate joy.”

Jackie lifted her head up just enough to peek up at Buddy. His lips twisted into a crooked grin and he nudged her with his shoulder.

“You also get really fucking morose and a little wrinkle forms between your brows when you think of a future that might not happen with Hyde.”

Jackie gasped and pinched his arm. “I don’t wrinkle.”

“Sure, whatever.” Buddy raised his hands defensively and let out a watery chuckle. “I just think it’s a real waste.”

Jackie lifted her head up, straightening her body as old words rang in her head.

_“But I think it’s a real waste because I love you.”_

“Like, sure marriage would be sweet to have one day,” Buddy continued, a dopey smile on his face. “Someone to come home to and be allowed to see you whenever you're stuck in the hospital. But honestly, it would just be nice to have someone that wants to call me theirs and hold my hand.”

“And that will happen someday.” Jackie laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his arm. “I should have known you would be a romantic when you told me your favorite song was Paul Anka’s _Put Your Head On My Shoulder_.”

“Oh, shut up!” Buddy burst into a peal of giggles and shoved Jackie off of him. She fell back on his bed laughing and started singing the song to him off-key as he repeatedly smacked her all over with one of his pillows.

* * *

“Mom,” Forman groaned. “I think you have enough pictures.”

Kitty laughed loudly and her camera flashed one last time before she stuffed it back into her purse. “You kids are just so cute.”

“I don’t see why I couldn’t take photos, if Kitty was allowed to.” Mrs. Morgan pouted and Buddy looked up to the ceiling and mouthed ‘Kill me now.’

It was the first time Hyde had an up close look at Buddy’s parents and it seemed like Buddy favored his mother more in looks, which may have done him some favors. She looked like an average housewife, plain but elegantly dressed. He had almost expected another Pam Burkhart—ridiculously hot and much younger than her husband.

Buddy’s father on the other hand was exactly as he pictured. He was like Jack Burkhart and spoke with an air of superiority, but at least he showed up for his kid. He had grumbled something to Red about how he wished his son played sports and the both of them shared that same frustrated dad look.

“How else would we be able to prove that you were ever inside of a church?” Mr. Morgan teased his son.

“Jacqueline, darling.” Mrs. Morgan gushed over Jackie and lightly fingered her Virgin Mary veil. “You are such a doll.”

Jackie flashed a more honest looking smile than what Mrs. Morgan had given her, but it slipped from her face when Mrs. Morgan turned away to find one of her friends in the audience.

“You don’t like Mary Ann Morgan?” Hyde asked her after their friends went to look for their parents and Fez went to find the Erdmans.

“I would like her more if I didn’t hear her tell Patty Ryals what she really thought about me.” Jackie rolled her eyes and yanked off her costume veil. “She had wanted to set up Buddy with Kat Peterson or Brenda Mott, but apparently I swooped in like my tart of a mother. That’s a direct quote by the way.”

“Don’t mind her, doll.” Hyde patted her on her back.

“Yeah, she’s probably just jealous of my youth.” Jackie tossed her hair over her shoulder and batted her lashes playfully. Hyde reached over and pinched her nose lightly and she slapped his hand away with a giggle. “You should get going. The Formans are probably looking for you.”

Looking over to where Forman and his parents stood with the Pinciottis—Bob still wearing the Santa outfit—Hyde caught them looking right at him and Jackie. He wanted the earth to open up and swallow all of them when he saw Kitty pantomiming that he should invite her to the house. Donna was right behind her, silently laughing.

It wasn’t a bad idea. Jackie was just going to be heading to an empty house. Her parents were the only ones that didn’t attend the Christmas pageant because they were out of state for the holiday and Jackie wasn’t able to go with them for some reason.

“ _How are you?” Hyde had asked the first Christmas Eve after Jack’s arrest. “It must be weird not having your parents around to celebrate.”_

_“I haven’t celebrated with them since I was nine.” Jackie smiled sadly and poked her hands inside the sleeves of his sweater. “On Christmas morning I would either have to be quiet while they nursed their hangovers or wait for them to call home and wish me a merry Christmas. Then my nanny and I would unbox my gifts and figure out how many thank you notes I would have to send that year.”_

_Jackie sighed and using her hold on his elbows, she pulled him closer to her and laid her head on his chest. The both of them were supposed to be hanging out with everyone but they had escaped the noise for a moment alone. They had only put an official label on their relationship a month before and it was their first “mandatory”—Jackie’s word not his—gift giving holiday as a couple._

_Hyde had made copies of the photos Kitty had taken of them during Thanksgiving and had framed them for Jackie. She had been a lot more ecstatic about the gift than he thought she would be, but she reminded him that the only photo she had of them alone together was from the Underclassmen Prom and he looked unhappy to be there._

_“And it was like that until I was twelve and my parents decided I didn’t need a nanny anymore.”_

“Are you going to hang out with the Morgans?”

“They actually have to head home because they’re driving to Ann Arbor to visit some relatives.” Jackie leaned and whispered, “Buddy says he’ll be bringing us all a big present wrapped in a brown paper bag.”

Hyde chuckled and mumbled as he chanted, “Kids in Texas smoking grass, ten year sentence comes to pass. Misdemeanor in Ann Arbor, ask the judges why?”

“God, he was singing the same song when he told me.” Jackie covered her mouth to try and stifle her giggles. “Donna actually invited me over to the Formans.”

He looked back over to where the Formans and the Pinciottis were talking. Donna had disappeared while he was talking to Jackie, probably to change out of her costume. He was going to have to have a talk with her about much she had been messing with him as of late.

Hyde was the last to arrive back at the Formans residence. He would have dipped out early and escaped having to clean up the chairs at the pageant if it weren’t for the fact he had to drive Leo home just to make sure he got back safe.

He also needed some space from everyone. Last Christmas of 1976, he had been living with Bud and had thrown a party after the pageant. It hadn’t ended well when Kelso took a drunk Forman home and Forman ended up puking all over Red’s shoes. Bud had decided to become a real dad and that hadn’t lasted long.

It was a strange night for Jackie as well. He had heard from Donna that they had gone out to a bar where men old enough to be their fathers were flirting with them until one of them mentioned having dated Jackie’s mother.

It was a fucked up situation but still kind of funny, but Hyde had also felt cheated. If all Jackie wanted to do was makeout with someone, he was right there and willing if she wanted. Things had been weird after Veterans Day of 1976 and he had to settle back into a life where Jackie didn’t chase him around and pretend that it didn’t bother him just a little that she had realized he wasn’t what she was looking for at the moment.

At least this time, Jackie and Donna weren’t going to be spending time with dillhole firemen that thought it was okay to flirt with girls that were clearly underage. Donna may have passed for a coed, but Jackie looked very much like a sixteen year old.

Shuffling up the driveway, Hyde found Red hanging out in the garage. He saw Hyde and gestured for him to come over. Sticking his hands in the pockets of his shearling lined coat, he joined Red as he dug through a box.

“Kitty was wondering when you would show up.” He continued to dig through the box and Hyde raised a brow at Red’s actions and leaned against the Toyota.

“Whatcha looking for, Red?”

“Nothing.’ Red tossed the box aside. “Just hiding from Bob.” He took a seat on his stool and cracked open a beer. “So what’s going on with you and the loud one?”

Hyde chuckled lowly and slid down the Toyota in defeat. Everyone seemed so determined to get him to admit out loud that he liked Jackie. “Did Mrs. Forman tell you to ask me about that?”

“She’s convinced that you two are dating and won’t tell her.”

Hyde knocked his head back against the side paneling of the Toyota, not caring about how the cold of the concrete seeped through his jeans. “We’re just friends.”

“You two are dumbasses.” Red took a swig of his beer. “You’ll probably be slower than Eric was about Donna.”

“I really feel the love there, Red.”

“Just get inside before Kitty forms a search party.”

Picking himself up off the ground, Hyde looked from where Red was sitting and back to the ground to his right. Curious, he narrowed his eyes and turned his attention back to Red who was finishing up his beer.

“What do you mean by slower than Forman?”

“If we’re counting back from Career Day...it’s been eight months, son.” Red raised his brows in amusement. “Still better than Eric’s ten years.”

 _Career Day?_ Hyde scowled. That was even further back than Kitty’s comment from Veterans Day. He hadn’t even spoken to Jackie that day. He just thought it was amusing that prissy and girly Jackie Burkhart was covered in grease and talking about U-joints.

Red gave him a knowing look and Hyde had to fight from grinning. It didn’t matter if he was from the future, Red would always be a step ahead of him somehow. He couldn’t say he liked Jackie Burkhart back then, but it had been the first moment she had intrigued him in some way, even if it had been minuscule.

He walked into the kitchen so he could greet Kitty before trudging down the steps to the basement. Everyone minus Buddy was already there and Fez had gone home first and dressed up as Santa.

“What took you so long, man?” Kelso asked, pulling out a twenty-four pack that was hidden in the dryer. “We’re about to play Quarters.”

“Really? ‘Tis the season to get sloppy,” Hyde joked, remembering how awful Forman had been at the game. He never improved at it too. Hyde sat down in his chair and noticed Jackie pull the stool with the rainbow cushion next to him. “Except for you.”

“What?” Jackie looked affronted and gasped in insult when Donna and Forman laughed at her expense. “Why not?”

“Because you’re a lightweight,” he explained as he helped Kelso set up the cups with beer for everyone. Hyde had taught Jackie how to play the summer they had started hooking up and her tolerance was ridiculously low. “And your sloppiness could get us all caught.”

“Yeah, Jackie,” Kelso guffawed. “Besides, you’ve never played this game. It would be too hard for you.”

Jackie pursed her lips, her cheeks flushing red in anger. Quickly, she set up a plastic cup in the center of the coffee table and grabbed one of the quarters. With a perfect bounce she landed her quarter into her cup. Donna and Forman’s laughter ceased immediately.

“Drink, Michael,” she ordered, smiling triumphantly.

Gaping at the center cup with the quarter, Kelso took his cup and chugged the serving of beer. Hyde grinned wickedly and filled his cup back up.

He looked at the rest of the group, finally settling his gaze on Jackie who had a smile to match his. “Well this night just got interesting.”

* * *

“Chasing the moonlight,” Eric slurred as he sang, laying his head on Donna’s shoulder, playing with her hair, “my cinnamon girl!”

Jackie had known that out of all of the boys that Eric and Fez had the lowest tolerance, but that Eric had the poorest hand-eye coordination. After several rounds, he hadn’t been able to score a single shot and had to drink not only when he missed but every time the other boys made their shots and ordered him to drink.

“He’s going to end up puking,” Jackie warned Donna, who was in the immediate potential splash zone.

She herself was a bit buzzed. Michael hadn’t liked being singled out every time she made a shot and alternated his drinking commands between her and Eric. Her younger body was weak, not accustomed to partying the way she was in the future. Jackie never drank in excess, but her eighteen year old body that had drunk spirits stolen from her father’s liquor cabinet with Steven could run circles around her sixteen year old body.

“How are you a better player than Kelso?” Donna asked, frowning at Kelso’s passed out figure on the lawn chair. She had helped Jackie tag team against Michael in an attempt to slow down the boys from getting Eric wasted.

Putting a finger to her lips, Jackie spoke around the appendage. “It’s a secret.”

Steven had taught her to play. It was one of the activities they had done in between all of the fooling around they had done. It had been a blast playing as a team against the others. They always won everything.

“Aww,” Jackie whined. She always got a little needier when she drank. “He fell asleep before I could give you guys your presents.”

“What did you get Kelso?” Donna asked, grabbing the presents that were under the tree the kids had in the basement.

“A Super Ball to replace the one he lost.” Michael was always easy to shop for, even when he wasn’t her boyfriend. She grabbed a box with snowflakes on it and handed it to Fez. “Here, Fezzie.”

Fez wasted no time in unwrapping his gift. He gasped and hugged the spa set and package of peppermint bark to his chest.

“Calgon bubble bath?” Donna gave Jackie a weird look.

“He seemed so stressed out the past week so I figured I would make him a destressing set.” Jackie shrugged. “That and he didn’t know what a bubble bath was so I had to explain it to him.”

For her birthday, Fez had gifted her a pink stuffed llama toy. It was the perfect replacement for Mr. Fluffycakes, who she had destroyed in her panic attack on her second day back in 1976. Sir Flufferton had helped her a lot on nights she couldn’t sleep so she wanted to get Fez something nice. Especially because he had been taking Buddy’s avoidance of him so badly.

Fez kept wanting to talk to Buddy and was trying too hard to let Buddy know that he still wanted to be friends, but all Buddy wanted was some space.

Donna held up the leather bound journal she had just pulled out of the box Jackie had handed to her and the gift Jackie had bought for the cat Eric had given her a few months back. “A new collar for Mr. Darcy and a journal with a lock? Huh. That’s one way to keep Eric from reading my diary.”

“Can you stop telling Jackie everything?” Eric groaned.

“I still can’t believe you have a little yellow bird tattooed on your ass.” Steven laughed, shaking his head before taking a drink from his beer.

“My tattoo is _much_ cooler,” Fez giggled, popping some peppermint bark into his mouth. “And I can make it dance.”

“Oh, Donna!” Jackie hugged the fuzzy pastel tie-dye slippers Donna had gifted her to her chest. She had expected Donna to give her a book for Christmas. “I love these.”

Donna shrugged her shoulders, but she looked pleased with herself. “I figured I couldn’t go wrong if I got you something shiny, pink, or fuzzy.”

Eric opened his box from Donna━who as his girlfriend had to get him a gift other than the cassette player everyone pinched in to buy him━and Jackie was glad that Donna already knew that Jackie had wanted new slippers and had been spending so much time in her room. Jackie had almost forgotten how ugly the dress shirts she bought Eric were.

“A shirt. Yay,” Eric feigned enthusiasm and hugged Donna in thanks. Luckily for him, he was drunk and Donna was too buzzed to notice the lackluster response. Jackie would have called him out for it if it weren’t for the fact she knew Eric would wear the orange paisley printed shirt multiple times in the next couple of years.

Hyde held up a ram’s head belt buckle and nodded in approval. “Nice. Thanks, Donna.”

“Having a job has really helped with getting gifts this year.” Donna handed Fez a flat box. He unwrapped it warily but sighed in relief when he removed the tissue paper and revealed a stationary set.

“Oooh, pretty.” Fez fingered the paper delicately.

“Yeah, I figured you could use some nice stationary for your letters home.”

Jackie fidgeted with the box laying by her feet. The only gift left was the one she had to give to Steven and she wasn’t sure how well it would be received considering his birthday had been the month before and he wasn’t a fan of people spending a lot of money on him. He had been fine with the occasional shirt she bought him while they had been dating but this was 1976 Steven and she wasn’t his girlfriend.

Sucking in a breath, Jackie lifted the box up and placed it in Steven’s lap. “This one’s for you.”

Steven opened up the box and pulled out the black snap shirt Jackie had bought. Jackie had gotten lucky and found one in the exact style as the one she had bought him in 1978 for their double date with Michael and Brooke. There was a moment of silence where he just stared at the shirt and Jackie wondered what was wrong. She knew it was something Steven would have liked but his blank stare was unnerving.

“Cool,” he finally reacted. “Thanks, Jackie.”

Jackie almost rolled her eyes. He was doing his ‘zen’ thing and even though he hadn’t taught her any of that this time around, she still knew he was trying to hide how he felt about his gift.

Fez handed out his gifts as well. He and the Erdmans had made fudge and he had also asked for his parents to ship him items from back home.

“Okay, what is that?” Donna pointed at the simple chain Jackie held up. It could have been a necklace but that didn’t seem right. “Fez. That’s not, like, some sort of ceremonial marriage item from your homeland that you’re tricking Jackie into accepting, are you?”

“What? No!” Fez laughed but then pouted when they all stared at him, waiting for an explanation. “I wouldn’t do that. It’s a body chain. Women in my country wear it as an accessory. It goes around the waist.”

“Oohh. Like they do in India or something?” Donna fingered the delicate chain and then poked at the beads.

“Oh, this would be so cute with my crop tops or bikinis.” Jackie laid the chain across her stomach. In her old timeline, Fez had never gotten her something like this. But then again, he had also treated her like a prize and was upset after his attempts to woo her hadn’t worked at Michael’s uncle’s ice shack. He hadn’t truly been a friend to her until she came back to 1976. “Too bad it’s winter.”

“These are really cool, Fez. Thanks,” Donna beamed at him, trying on her new woven bracelet.

“My sister makes and sells them. Or trades. Depends on which side of the island she’s on.”

“You have a sister?” Eric wrinkled his nose in confusion as Donna helped him put on his new leather bracelet he got from Fez.

“Yes,” Fez nodded and then pointed at Michael’s sleeping form nervously. “But don’t let Kelso know. I don’t want to end up like Eric and he nails my older sister.”

Steven, Donna, and Jackie burst out laughing while Eric got up and pelted Fez with empty beer cans. Fez ended up batting them away with one of the empty gift boxes and smacking Michael in the face with a can.

“Duck and cover!” Michael woke up, flailing his arms around. He looked around at everyone’s blank expressions and asked, “What did I miss?”

They were all silent for a minute before Eric shouted at him, “Fez has a sister!”

“You son of a bitch!” Fez cried out before tackling Eric.

Jackie wished she had brought a camera and took photos for Buddy. He was going to be able to hang out with them on New Year’s Eve, but tonight he was stuck with his snobby cousins in Ann Arbor. He was likely to read _Pride and Prejudice_ like he had promised Donna he would so he could figure out why she and Jackie liked Mr. Darcy so much. It was one of the only books Donna and Jackie could agree on which was the main reason for Buddy’s interest.

“Hey.” Donna moved closer to Jackie, ignoring the beer can fight the boys were having. “Sorry about Hyde’s weird reaction to your gift. I thought it was his style when you showed it to me and that he’d like it.”

“Oh, he liked it.” It has been obvious to Jackie that he did.

Donna raised a brow at her in confusion before looking away and at the boys. They had started sticking ice and popsicles down each other’s pants.

“Sometimes I can’t believe we’re friends with them.”

“They would be lost without us, Donna,” Jackie stated matter-of-factly. “We’re the sparkle in their dull lives. Also, I’m pretty sure you’re their impulse control and the only reason they survived this long.”

“Oh?” Donna crossed her arms in front of her chest and grinned at her smugly. “And what great service do you provide?”

“Hello? They get to look at me, duh.” Donna shoved Jackie on the shoulder playfully. Jackie laughed and shoved her right back. “Seriously? Without me, you probably would have killed Eric by now.”

Donna pondered it for a moment, her face shifting expressions as she looked back on the past year and a half. “You know what? I think you’re right.”

“I’m _always_ right,” Jackie replied half serious and half jokingly. If only this Donna knew what they had ended up doing on Christmas Eve in the original 1976.

Her parents had attended some Christmas Eve benefit in Chicago and in 1976, Jackie had begun to get tired of hanging out with the “It” crowd outside of school. She had also been single and didn't have a boyfriend to act as a buffer to ward away the loneliness.

She had ended up spending the night with Donna and then going back to an empty house and pampering herself. The night had been pretty humiliating, but she had still enjoyed herself because she was with her friend.

“What are you gonna do now?” Donna asked her, picking up the discarded tissue paper from the floor. “Your parents aren’t back until tomorrow afternoon, right?”

“I don’t know.” Jackie crossed her legs and propped her chin in the cradle of her hand. “A Calgon bath, a facial, and my Jean Nate. Maybe some tater tots.”

“What is up with you and tater tots?” Donna laughed, her shoulders shaking from the force. “Why don’t you just sleep over? Not like any of these bozos are sober enough to drive you home.”

“God, I can’t believe my dad took the keys to the Lincoln with him to Chicago.”

“Well, what did you expect? You snuck out and stole your dad’s car,” Donna snorted.

“Ladies don’t do that, Donna,” Jackie scolded her. Donna leaned in and snorted in her face. “Ew!” Donna continued to snort in her face. “Donna back off or I’ll pinch you! You smell like beer, you goon.”

“So do you, princess.” Donna reached over and tickled Jackie’s ribs, yanking on her turtleneck sweater to make sure she couldn’t get away.

Shrieking, Jackie attempted to curl inward to fight off Donna’s hands. All she succeeded in doing was making herself compact enough to be easy to lift up and slammed onto the couch for easier access.

“Oh my God,” Jackie heard Michael cry out. “It’s a Christmas miracle! Quick, someone get the mistletoe and put it over them.”

“For the last time, dillhole,” Donna let go of Jackie and chucked an unopened beer can at Michael’s head, “Jackie and I aren’t making out for you guys.”

“Stop being selfish, Donna!”

Donna gave Jackie a look and Jackie nodded back at her. The both of them picked up beer cans and kept flinging them at Michael until he ran out the basement door to get away from them. They waited five minutes and realized he wasn’t coming back.

After that, they all cleaned up so that Kitty and Red wouldn’t find the mess they made and know they had spent the holy holiday drinking away. At some point, Fez had started drinking more and ended up passed out on the couch. Eric had been surprisingly coherent enough to leave the Erdmans a message on their answering machine so they knew where Fez was when they returned home from midnight mass.

“Hey, Eric.” Jackie looked up at the sound of Donna’s voice. She was putting on her coat and talking to Eric. She raised her brow and looked questioningly at the way Donna leaned in to talk to him. “I’ll help you with the trash.”

“Uh…” Eric held up the single bag of trash. “Sure.”

“If you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do,” Jackie wrinkled her nose in disgust, “I don’t wanna sleep over.”

“I can give you a ride home,” Steven offered with a shrug. “I’m not even buzzed.”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t mind.”

It was younger Steven and his hair was longer and his jaw not as strongly defined yet, but it was the same voice offering a ride in the same intonation as her last night in 1979.

“Okay.”

Steven had told her to wait while he went to start the Camino and bring it up to the Formans’ from where he parked it around the corner. Normally she wouldn’t have minded walking with him and waiting in the cab while his truck warmed up, but Jackie wanted to talk to the only other geek she knew besides Buddy that also happened to be way too sensitive.

“That was fast,” she commented as Eric came back into the basement from the stairs leading to the driveway.

“Bob was waiting up for Donna,” he grumbled, taking a seat on the lawn chair. “Too good to wait out in the cold?”

“Of course.” Jackie wrung her hands into the fabric of her coat. “That and I had a question—a completely random question—for you.”

“Okay?” Eric narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Shoot.”

“You like Star Trek and all of that Sci-Fi crap, right?” It was a rhetorical question. Jackie knew he liked it and was dreading his upcoming obsession with Star Wars.

“Jackie. _You_ like that Sci-Fi crap. You probably like _Logan’s Run_ more than I do.”

“Whatever.” Jackie waved at him dismissively. Her interest in sci-fi in this timeline was mostly for research about her own situation with time travel. “I want to run a scenario by you for my creative writing assignment. Let’s say, you and Donna had a really bad break up where you had to break up with her because she didn’t know if she had a future with you at the moment. That she wanted to leave it all up to chance or whatever but what it really meant was that she could take it or leave it with your relationship.”

Jackie watched as Eric’s face melted into heartbroken confusion. For a moment she had forgotten that Eric and Donna _had_ broken up for that reason in her past and their future.

“Not that it's going to happen!” She continued on. “It's just a scenario. So you break up and you miss her but one day you wake up in the past before you even dated. You try to avoid starting the relationship again because why go through all of that again just to have your heart broken again, right?”

“Right…” Eric squirmed in his seat. Jackie rolled her eyes at his discomfort with talking to her alone.

“But even though you’re trying to avoid all of that and not even make dating an option, Donna still has an interest in you for some reason.” Eric gave her a pointed glare that she ignored. “So even though you’re not trying to be with her or make yourself seem available to her she still wants you. What do you do?”

Eric leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees so that he could rest his chin on his clasped fingers.

“Doesn’t that mean that in this scenario, Donna was my soulmate?”

“Soulmate?”

“Well, yeah.” Eric hiked his shoulders up to his ears and rolled his eyes in embarrassment. “If I’m trying to avoid Donna falling for me but she does so anyway, doesn’t it mean that we were meant to be? So why fight it? I just wouldn’t mess up like I’m sure I did in your scenario.”

“How did _you_ mess up?” Jackie felt slightly offended that he could find something wrong with wanting a future.

“You can’t force someone to do things the way you want them to.”

 _Well, that’s ironic._ Jackie was going to have to remember his exact words for later.

“Even though when the heartbreak is fresh I’m sure I would want to have never had Donna in the first place,” Eric leaned back in his chair, “I’m even more sure that I would regret it more if I was never with her. Donna makes me a better person and I care about her. I don’t think my life would be better if I went back in time and made it so that we never were in love if we broke up.”

Jackie fell back so that her back hit the backrest of Steven’s chair. Her and the scenario she invented for Eric was so different.

Steven had made her a better person and she was carrying those experiences and knowledge with her now. She didn’t need to relearn everything about how she didn’t need to rely on a man to support her and that she was unhappy dumbing herself down for a boy.

But she still cared about him. 1979 Steven or 1976 Steven, she still loved him and just talking to him made her happy and she wanted that forever.

If only she could get a sign or something that would make everything so much easier for her to decide what direction to go.

“So I think your characters in your creative writing project just need to do what they think will make them happy,” Eric suggested. “That’s what you want, right? A happy ending?”

“Yeah.” Jackie bit the corner of her lower lip in thought. “Yeah, I do. Thanks for your help, Eric.”

“I didn’t get you a Christmas present so,” Eric waved his hand as if brushing off the conversation, “just don’t tell anyone I helped you with anything.”

“Of course. And you don’t tell anyone I needed your input on any aspect of my life.” They shook hands and Jackie grabbed her purse. “Merry Christmas, Eric. I’m going to go meet up with Steven.”

Eric’s words didn’t really solve Jackie’s problem. She could interpret them as she pleased because they went either way. She knew she loved Steven and had believed they were soulmates, but she also wanted her happy ending and that was still up in the air. She had no clue if it was going to happen for her if she followed her heart’s desire.

Pulling out her list from her purse she read over it as she walked down the street towards the idling Camino.

“My GPA will not dip below 3.5,” she muttered to herself. “Jackie Burkhart will not dumb herself down for anyone. I will not give up my baton or pom-poms, Julie can suck it when I add more gymnastics to our choreography. Don’t let _anyone_ ━not even mother━tell you what you can or can’t do. Be a better friend to Donna. Try to be less selfish. Try and be friends with Fez. Listen more. Don’t dye Donna’s hair blonde, it makes her complexion look weird. Learn to cook. Try and be nicer to Bob Pinciotti. Don’t let mother date Bob Pinciott—you can’t be _that_ nice to him. Don’t let Eric make Donna cry. If Eric makes her cry, kick him in the nads not shin. Get a job and save money. Work with the LoPPs more. Love Buddy Morgan enough for both of his parents. Don’t over tighten my curls.”

She looked up when she reached the passenger side door of the Camino and folded and stuffed her list into her pocketbook.

_Don’t fall in love with Steven Hyde again._

The last item on her list was the most difficult to accomplish. She had already failed it as soon as she put the ink to paper. It was near impossible to separate 1979 Steven and 1976 Steven from each other. She loved them both and with the way things were going with her friendship with the Steven of the past, she would be in love with this Steven too.

“Hey,” Jackie greeted Steven as she escaped the cold and entered the cab of his truck.

“Hey.”

“Isn’t Mr. Forman going to be mad at you for breaking curfew?” Even before 1979 Steven had gone to jail for her, Red Forman had been a hardass about curfew for the boys. It never stopped Steven from sneaking out, but she didn’t want 1976 Steven to get in trouble.

“We just tell him we were making sure you got home safe whenever we break curfew.”

“How often do you guys do that?” Steven smiled at her but didn’t answer as he pulled away from the curb. “Oh, great. He’s going to think I’m a degenerate like all of you. I’m supposed to be the favorite.”

“I’m pretty sure he already thinks that considering you choose to be friends with us.”

“You’re not so bad.” Steven gave her a weird look and she rolled her eyes and averted her gaze to the passenger window. “He likes you almost as much as he likes me.”

They rode in silence listening to WFPP. The late night DJ before Donna got the job was playing a Christmas music block, but Steven left the radio on with the volume low.

It had been such a long day, with the Christmas pageant and then celebrating with her friends. Jackie just wanted to go home and sleep. Christmas of 1976 had gone so differently this time around and she was glad for it because repeating days from her past was exhausting when she knew what was supposed to happen.

“Are you sure you wanna stay here?” Steven asked, pulling into the gravel driveway and setting the Camino in park. “I’m sure Donna wouldn’t care if you changed your mind.”

Jackie looked out the window at her empty and dark house. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

“Just ‘cause you’re used to it, it doesn’t mean you have to be okay with it.”

Jackie turned away from the window and offered Steven a soft smile. He really was no different than his older self once she let him in and let him know about the reality of her life instead of oversharing the few positives. He was such a good friend to her.

She ignored the dull heaviness in her chest at the thought that he should only be her friend. She reminded herself of the broken promises and the callous way he spoke of them and how he told her she should have known he wasn’t listening to her when she mentioned things that were important to her.

“I’ll be fine,” Jackie assured herself more than Steven.

1976 Steven obviously cared about her but it wasn’t love. She wouldn’t have to worry about this Steven breaking promises or getting tired of her and abandoning her. If she remained stuck in this timeline she could go off to college and it wouldn’t matter where, because she wouldn’t be worried about how he would react to it and if he would leave her because she wasn’t around.

“Hold on a sec.” Steven stopped her from leaving when she cracked open the door. She let go of the handle and let the door fall back in place. “I got something for you. It’s under the bench.”

Reaching under her seat, Jackie pulled out a simple gift wrapped box.

“You got me a present?” Jackie couldn’t help the elation that poured out of her when she spoke. She hadn’t expected any of her friends other than Donna and Buddy to get her a gift and now Steven of all people got her something.

Jackie looked at the present and then back to her cold house. None of the lights were on and her parents wouldn’t be home until much later. Not even the Christmas decorations stopped the mansion from looking so cold and oppressing. She let the pads of her fingers glide across the smooth wrapping paper, the movement only impeded when she ran into the ribbon used to wrap the box.

Looking up at Steven, his expression remained blank. If he knew she was procrastinating going inside, he didn’t let it show. Prolonging actually leaving, Jackie pulled at the ribbon on the gift box until it came undone.

“Don’t get too excited,” Steven warned her as she opened the box. “It’s not much.”

Protected with mounds of tissue paper, Jackie pulled out a simple wooden accordion frame. Extending it so it revealed four photos, Jackie ran a finger along the glass shielding the images of her friends.

In one photo she and Donna were captured dancing together on Veterans Day. The photo following it was of her, Michael, Buddy, and Fez posing in their seats at the Pinciottis’ second wedding. Right after was a photo of all of them except for Fez—who was taking the photo—and Michael sitting at a table at Snow Prom. The last photo was another candid photo from Veterans Day and the one that surprised her the most.

The photo was of her and Steven sitting on the lawn chairs in the Pinciottis’ backyard. Neither one of them were looking at the camera and the photographer had caught them smiling in the middle of a discussion, their eyes only on each other.

 _That_ was worrisome. Was that how they looked to someone on the outside?

“You’re smiling in this one,” Jackie teased. “You’re also wearing your sunglasses in _both_ photos you’re in, Steven. You’re ridiculous.”

“Mrs. Forman is pretty trigger happy with a camera and Fez is always taking photos to send back home.” Hyde shrugged, trying to hide how pleased he was at how much she liked her present. “It was easy to make some copies at the Fotohut.”

“Thank you, Steven,” Jackie gushed. It was the sweetest gift she knew she would receive for Christmas and even though he didn’t know it, her nightstand was looking kind of empty without her usual photo on it. “I love it.”

Most of her photos were professionally taken and even the photos she had of Michael were headshots. The only candid photos she ever had were taken by Kitty at holidays or events. She secretly thought Kitty Forman’s photos were better than the professional studio photos that her parents had them take every year.

There was something more beautiful in the photos taken by someone that loved the subjects. As pretty as the photos came out and as great as she was at making her smiles look real on the spot, the photos still looked stiff.

“It’s us.” Jackie gingerly repackaged the accordion frame. She didn’t want anything bad to happen to it on her way up to her room. “It’s all of us. I don’t have photos of all of us.”

“Didn’t think you did.” Steven scratched the back of his neck. “You sure you wanna stay here? I can wait until you pack an overnight bag and then take you back to Donna’s.”

Jackie laughed at his insistence, but the sound died in her throat when she saw the intensity of his stare. “Oh, wow. You’re really worried about me, huh?”

“I’m not worried.” Steven paused for a moment and sighed. “Your parents are just shitty for leaving you here alone on Christmas.”

“You’re a terrible liar. Just admit you’re worried about me.”

Steven stared at her long and hard. Not a single muscle in his face flinching. “Alright. Maybe I am.”

Jackie’s breath hitched. There were so many things she wanted to do in that moment and all of them stupid.

“I’ll be fine. Really.” Jackie smiled softly at him, reaching for his hand and gripping his fingers. “Merry Christmas, Steven.”

Releasing his hand, Jackie slid out of the El Camino before she did something she regretted and ruined her friendship with Steven. She wanted a sign but that hadn’t been it, couldn’t be it. Steven was like that with all of his friends and she couldn’t risk reading into things.

“‘Night, Jackie.” Steven waved at her as she shut the door, juggling her presents in her arms.

Jackie could feel him watching her as she set her gifts down to unlock the double set of doors of the main entrance to her family’s mansion. She could hear the El Camino still idling outside as she locked the doors and turned on the light in the foyer. She moved further into the house, turning hallway lights on and the lights for the staircase, the Camino still rumbling as she moved further into her house.

She couldn’t help but smile as she trudged up to her room, straining to hear Steven’s truck. Her Steven used to do the same thing. When he knew her parents weren’t home, he would wait until her bedroom light came on. She shouldn’t have expected anything less. During their fling he kissed her sweetly when he said goodnight and waited, as if he were a good boyfriend after an innocent date and not just the guy that had her hand down his pants and his hand up her skirt. Why wouldn’t he do the same now when he was her friend?

After dumping her gifts on her bed, Jackie rushed out into the hall and down to the window that faced the front. She pushed aside the curtain and waved at the Camino as Steven backed out of the driveway. Just like she thought he would, he got out of his truck and made sure her gate was properly closed and locked.

“God.” Jackie shook her head and giggled to herself. “Some things really aren’t that different.”

She took a quick shower and went through her nightly routine, turning her bedroom television on to the channel playing _It’s a Wonderful Life_ for the hundredth playthrough of the holiday season just for some background noise. She shuffled around her room in her new slippers and put away her body chain from Fez with her jewelry and placed the fudge on her bookshelf with the tacky Christmas card from Donna, lining it up with the birthday and holiday cards she favored too much to stuff into a box.

Finally, she rearranged her nightstand to make room for her new accordian frame from Steven with the photos of their friends. Carefully removing the frame from the box, Jackie had accidentally lifted up an envelope she hadn’t noticed before. It was plain white unlike the festive colors of the envelopes most of the Christmas wishes she received came in.

“Huh.” Jackie placed the frame on her stand and untucked the envelope’s flap and pulled out the simple sheet of paper. “Oh. Oh, my God.”

Steven had always been amazing at coming up with haikus on the spot. He didn’t need much time to create one and no matter how hard she tried Jackie could never do the same. He made it seem so easy to come up with perfectly structured poems that followed the 5-7-5 format but she always either fell short a syllable or went over. She preferred flowery words and iambic pentameter, something that had thrown Steven off because other than her magazines the only books anyone had seen her read were her Nancy Drew novels.

Really. How did they think she was getting all of her As and Bs? Her dad always gave her more money when she brought home good grades on her tests and papers. Just because she had interests outside of her studies, it didn’t mean she was stupid.

She found it so hard to limit herself to the strict structure and left reciting and writing haikus to Steven who passed them to her whenever he ran into her between classes, sneaking a kiss as he slipped the scrap of paper into her hand.

“You and I speaking,” Jackie traced the first line with her nail, “soft words meant only for us,” she stressed the final syllable of the second line, “would be very cool.”

If there was ever a sign from the universe, it was right there in her hand written in seventeen syllables.

* * *

Someone needed to tell Donna to slow down. Forman was unavailable as he was running around helping Kitty with whatever she needed for the party and picking up some last minute supplies.

“Donna,” Hyde snatched the beer out of Donna’s hand, “you’re going to end up puking before Forman gets back and I’m not cleaning up after you. That’s his job.”

“They’re just so embarrassing, Hyde.” Donna covered her face with her hands. “I thought things were finally getting better after they decided to do the vow renewal but they’ve been fighting all week and it’s worse than before. They didn’t even care that Jackie was over. We were sitting in the den, reading, and next thing you know they walked in insulting each other and my dad was just in his robe and boxers!”

 _Ah_. There it was. The honeymoon phase was over.

“Jackie was there?”

Hyde hadn’t seen Jackie since he dropped her off at home. Donna and Buddy had mentioned that she was busy helping her mother plan a New Year’s Eve party her parents were throwing. He couldn’t remember Jackie's plans in 1976 because he had been drunk that night and had also not cared about what she was up to at all.

He had seriously fucked up by giving her a haiku. It had been six days and she hadn’t come by the basement. He knew she was working during winter break but their shifts didn’t match up in a way that allowed him to swing by and there was no freaking way he would if he was free anyway. He put the ball in her court and now it was up to Jackie to make her move.

“Yeah, she needed a break from the crap going on in her house right now.” Donna opened up another beer. When Hyde tried to take it from her she slapped his hand away and pointed at him threateningly. “She needed to think about something but she couldn’t do it at her place.”

“Fuck.” Hyde ran his hands down his face.

“Wow. You’re emoting more than usual tonight.” Donna raised a brow at him and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “What’s going on with you?”

“This isn’t what we do, Donna,” Hyde deflected. “You talk to me about your parents or Forman and I give you advice or some words that bring you comfort. That’s what we do.”

“Usually, yes,” Donna agreed. She frowned and then took a swig of her beer. “Which we will have to come back to at some point ‘cause I’m now realizing how fucked up that is.”

“I’m completely fine with that. We don’t have to change things up.” Hyde patted her on her shoulder. “Really. We don’t have to talk about me.”

“But _I_ wanna talk about you and whatever is going on with _you_!” Donna exclaimed, spilling some beer as she flailed her arms around. “It’s better than talking about how crazy my parents are. Come on, Hyde. Throw me a bone.”

 _No fucking way I’m doing that_.

He was saved from answering when Kelso stormed into the basement with Fez, holding a bundle of bottle rockets. Donna kept her eyes on him the entire time he interacted with the guys, but dropped the conversation.

He just wanted to drop the whole Jackie thing. He should have known better than to put himself out there. Now he was going to have to deal with whatever mess their relationship was going to be now that he went ahead and gave her a piece of him.

For the past five months he had been drifting by, waiting for his punishment to be over. Despite being seventeen again, nothing truly terrible was happening. High school still sucked, but it was just school. No one but the Formans expected him to excel and there was some freedom in just being a teenager with the only goal being to graduate.

It was strange being back in the past and realizing only Donna and Buddy had any idea about what they may want for the future. Donna had all of these dreams and none of them ended up happening. She was still stuck in Point Place in 1979 and it was obviously because her attachment to Forman was keeping her there.

Hyde didn’t even know what Jackie of 1979 was going to do after graduation. He only knew about her desire to eventually be married. Did that mean she planned on being a pampered housewife? Because that wasn’t happening if she wanted a future with him and he thought she knew that. Maybe she did and he fucked up and hadn’t been listening when she told him what she wanted to do.

Ever since she was fifteen years old, Jackie had always talked everyone’s ears off about the different things she wanted to be when she was older, but it had slowed down after she turned seventeen. There were no more fantasies about becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader or a model. What had he missed when he stopped listening to her?

The Jackie of the new timeline was more focused on her studies and participated more in extracurriculars that weren't cheerleading. It took Buddy—fucking Buddy—to point out that what he and everyone else had been making fun of her for in his old timeline, could have been a key to college and that cheerleading counted as a sport so Jackie had to keep her grades up to even be allowed to participate. It wasn’t like football or the other men’s sports where the guys were passed along because the school faculty cared more about them than the girls’ teams and their success.

Hyde hadn’t even known that Jackie had taken French since she was in middle school. She knew Spanish and French and who knew if learning languages was something she needed for the future she wanted.

He was supposed to know Jackie better than anyone and it took his friendship with 1976 Jackie for him to realize that even he didn’t know eighteen year old Jackie that well.

“What are you doing out here?”

Hyde looked up from his seat on one of the patio chairs at the sound of Buddy Morgan’s voice and Jackie’s heels clicking on the driveway. The both of them were dressed to the nines, much fancier than necessary for a Forman New Year’s Eve party.

“Needed some air,” he answered, tapping his index finger on his knee. Looking over the fringe and sequins of Jackie’s ivory and silver dress and the ornate headband around her head and the fur wrap clipped with a rhinestone brooch, he had to ask, “what are you wearing?”

“Oh, I’m a flapper for the night. My parents threw a Great Gatsby themed party.”

“That’s ironic,” Hyde muttered to himself.

“I thought it was Roaring Twenties themed?” Buddy asked, his brow wrinkling in confusion.

“Yeah, but believe me, Great Gatsby seems way more appropriate.” Jackie rolled her eyes and shared a look with Hyde that had him sitting up straighter. What was that supposed to mean?

“So you two just ditched the party?” Hyde cracked his knuckles for something to do with his hands. “Got tired of the caviar and champagne and decided to trade down for cheese puffs and Schlitz’s Old Milwaukee?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Buddy gave him his signature grin. “I just got so tired of the LoPPs. They were everywhere you looked. It was funny watching Kat and Brenda make fools of themselves for those women though.”

“Why do rich girls give a shit about what middle aged women, that are so full of themselves they had to make their own social hierarchy outside of high school, have to say?”

When was Hyde going to get away from the LoPPs bullshit? It followed him everywhere ever since that stupid Christmas party. Was that supposed to be part of his punishment? How long was this stupid sentence supposed to last? He had almost lost it a few days ago when he opened Jackie’s present and she had bought him the same shirt she had bought for him when they went out to dinner with Brooke and Kelso.

“The Ladies of Point Place pick one lucky Point Place High senior girl and give them a grant for college and with their connections, they can get amazing recommendation letters for their potential LoPPs.” Buddy explained, the humor slipping off of his face.

 _Oh, fuck._ Hyde’s eyes widened behind his aviators. A grant and recommendation letters. Exactly what a former Point Place princess would need for college after her family went broke and the family’s reputation went down the drain because her city councilman father was in prison.

And he was the asshole boyfriend that broke his promise and told her that playing with toys was a higher priority than going to the party she had originally asked him politely to attend.

“The future LoPPs vying for that support have a lot to live up to though. Brooke Rockwell really raised the bar which is why I keep insisting Jackie join another academic club.” As an afterthought Buddy added awkwardly, “My mom’s on the board.”

Something heavy fell into the pit of Hyde’s stomach. He really wasn’t paying attention at all—not to Jackie or even Kitty Forman. What the fuck happened to him that he stopped paying attention to the people that were supposed to matter?

“I thought they just threw parties.”

“They do.” Jackie’s gaze was on her feet. The glitter on her eyelids that matched her dress sparkled with the light shining from the kitchen. “But they also work on a lot of community projects like helping underprivileged kids,” like the kids the toys had been for at the LoPP’s Christmas party, “running the canned food drives, and raising funds for charities. Mostly those based in Wisconsin but they also support other charities in America and some in South America and Africa.”

“We should get inside.” Buddy placed his hand on Jackie’s lower back and nudged her towards the sliding door. “It’s too cold out for you in that dress and we have to give Mrs. Forman her bottle of champagne.”

“You always have something for the Formans when you come over.” It was a weird habit of Buddy’s that Hyde had noticed. It made Mrs. Forman happy, but it sometimes irritated Red how many gifts they received.

“Yeah, it’s something I picked up from my mom.” Buddy slightly raised the bottle he was carrying as part of his explanation. “You don’t just show up to someone’s house empty handed when you’re a guest. Which reminds me.”

Buddy dug into the pocket of his suit jacket, pulled out a brown paper bag, and tossed it to Hyde.

“How about we have one last circle of 1976?”

Hyde stood up and patted Buddy on the shoulder. “You’re not so bad, kid. Hurry up and meet us all downstairs. We’ve got like,” Hyde checked his watch, “twenty minutes before midnight.”

“Right. Come on, Jackie.”

Jackie looked over her shoulder back at Hyde as Buddy ushered her into the kitchen. She looked like she wanted to say something but instead turned to face forward.

After the ball that Buddy had just dropped, if Jackie was prepared to reject him, Hyde felt he would have deserved it. It would have been the ultimate punishment the government could have given him in this simulation.

Being sent back in time was nothing. Being told by Jackie that she didn’t feel the same way he did and then having to repeat 1977 all over again the next day? Now that would be a kick in the nads that he so rightfully deserved.

* * *

Steven was right about Kitty Forman being trigger happy with a camera. She had gotten super excited about Jackie’s flapper dress and wanted photographs. Buddy had chosen to make his escape to the basement while Jackie posed for her.

“You’re just such a doll,” Kitty gushed, laughing boisterously. Jackie was sure that she had one glass of wine too many.

“Yeah, Burkhart.” Laurie nodded in approval, gesturing all over Jackie with her glass of champagne. “You’re the only one of my brother’s loser friends that knows how to dress or do anything with their hair.”

“Now, Laurie,” Kitty scolded her daughter, “you can’t call your brother’s friends losers.”

Laurie shrugged and shook out her Farrah Fawcett hair do before heading over to the bar. It was the most she had said to Jackie in weeks and Jackie was unsettled by the lack of insult.

“Please remind the rest of the kids that they have to come up for the countdown.” Kitty finally freed Jackie to meet up with her friends.

It had been six days since Jackie had stepped foot in the basement. The only reason why she had even snuck over from her parents’ party was because Buddy had seen how miserable she was. She was all smiles for all of her parents’ guests and only Buddy had figured out that she had been faking.

 _“It takes a faker to know a faker,”_ he had told her, grabbing his coat, her purse, and stealing a bottle of champagne along the way. He led her past the piano and out the living room’s door to the backyard. They had snuck around the whole of the mansion and ran down the street laughing, their breaths puffing out in white clouds, all the way to the Morgans’ mansion to get his Trans Am.

He asked her where she would go if she could be anywhere and once upon a time she would have said Paris, but there was only one place she wanted to be.

 _“The Formans’? Really?”_ He had teased as if it hadn’t been the first place he had thought to go as well.

 _“It’s where home is,”_ she had replied, wondering if Buddy understood that she had meant it in more than one way.

“Jackie!” Donna wrapped her arms around her and lifted her up and twirled her around.

“What is happening!?” Jackie shrieked. Donna had attacked her as soon as she stepped off the final step from the stairs from the kitchen.

“Oh, Donna’s drunk.” Eric laughed, slapping his thigh. “ _Really_ drunk.”

“You’re so shinyyyyy.” Donna set Jackie down and grabbed her hand, spinning her in place. “Like a disco ball!”

“Oh, no.” Jackie yanked her arm away and grabbed onto Donna to keep her from toppling over. “Who let her drink so much?”

“You try taking a beer away from Big D.” Michael was sitting on the lawn chair, a plastic top hat on his head. “She kneed me in the nads.”

“Jackie, I’m sad!” Donna wailed, wrapping her arms around her again and burying her face in Jackie’s hair.

“Come on, Lumberjack.” Jackie stroked Donna’s hair. “You’re going to squish me.”

Jackie felt something wet hit her neck and knew Donna had to be crying. Jackie knew from experience that Donna went through every emotion possible when she was drunk. She would be happy one moment and a blink later she was sobbing.

There were some things that Jackie couldn’t fix in the past and one of them was Donna’s parents and all of their fighting. The fighting would only get worse and one day Donna was going to wake up with only a note and Midge would be gone.

“You guys need to go upstairs,” Jackie ordered the boys with a nod of her head in the direction of the stairs. “The ball is going to drop soon. Steven? Help me get Donna back home.”

“Why can’t I help?” Eric whined at being overlooked as Steven took Donna’s arm and wrapped it around his shoulders for support.

“Because you can barely do a pull-up, how are you supposed to help me get Donna to her room?” Jackie snapped. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to calm down. “You need to be upstairs with your parents at midnight and to tell Bob and Midge that Donna isn’t feeling well so she went home. They’re going to ask where you guys are and it would be really freakin’ inappropriate for her boyfriend to be sneaking over to an empty house with her and they would rush over and find out that she’s drunk.”

“Yeah, Forman,” Steven agreed with her. “Use your brain.”

Jackie and Steven made their way up the outdoor steps, making sure no one was in the kitchen to catch them crossing the driveway with bumbling Donna. Jackie was grateful for Steven’s help as he helped carry Donna while she kept reaching for Jackie’s headband. The other boys would have either dropped her or in Michael’s case, tried to cop a feel.

As Steven helped Donna remove her shoes, Jackie opened the door to Donna’s en suite and made sure the light was on and Donna would have a clear path to the toilet.

“Can you get her a glass of water and some aspirin?” Jackie opened Donna’s drawers and looked for her pajamas. “I’m going to help her into her night clothes. _Knock_ before coming back in.”

Donna kept trying to fight her off, but eventually Jackie was able to get Donna into her flannel pajamas and tucked into bed. Donna sniffed and held onto Jackie’s hand not wanting to let go.

“Come in,” Jackie called out when she heard Steven’s heavy knock on the door. She felt the mattress dip as Steven sat next to her, but she didn’t look away from Donna as she stroked her hair.

“She said things aren’t going well with her parents again.”

“Yeah and Eric doesn’t know.”

It was something that Jackie hadn’t understood in the past. Donna opened to her and to Steven, but never to her own boyfriend. She knew Steven would understand more, but Eric would listen to her too. Eric loved her and wanted to be there for her.

But then, Jackie had done the same with Michael. She talked to him about everything and anything, except for her problems at home. He just wouldn’t have understood.

“Super,” Steven muttered sarcastically. “He’s not going to like that we know and he doesn’t.”

“He just doesn’t get it.” Jackie gently pried her hand from Donna’s grip and pulled the comforter up to her chin. “His biggest parental issues are that his mom loves him too much and his dad wishes he knew what a carburetor was. At least that’s how Donna sees it.”

“Speaking of parents.” Jackie felt Steven brush her hair away from her face and over her shoulder. “How was your week party planning with Pam?”

“Too much,” Jackie giggled softly. She turned to face Steven and reached for his hand that was resting on Donna’s bed. “She’s so over the top and I guess she felt bad about Christmas because she wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“That’s good. Right?” He let her take his hand and he ran his thumb over her knuckles.

“Kind of.” Jackie had tried to bring it up to Donna, but she didn’t fully comprehend it. “I just don’t want to get too attached to the idea that she’ll be around.”

Donna didn’t truly understand, but Steven did. Edna had been horrible, always degrading him and smacking him around, but there were rare moments when she did something Steven liked━like buy him beer━but no mother should have done. Their mothers could be their friends one moment and then take off for weeks. Pam eventually came back home, but Edna never would and Jackie was glad for it. Edna didn’t deserve Steven.

“Don’t make out on my bed please,” Donna mumbled. “I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Oh, my God.” Jackie covered her reddening face with her hands. “There’s water and aspirin on your nightstand. Happy New Year, you goon.”

“Sleep it off, Big Red.” Steven laughed silently before exiting the room.

“I can’t believe her!” Jackie hissed, her face still hot from the embarrassment. Leaving the Pinciotti household, the cold had barely any effect on the heat radiating from her face.

Donna of the future had caught Jackie and Steven making out enough times on her bed that she had kept a spray bottle full of water handy to use against them. But that was a Steven she had been dating! This Steven didn’t even know what she wanted from him.

 _He still doesn’t know._ Jackie stopped in the middle of the driveway and watched Steven’s back as he crossed the Formans’ kitchen door. He hadn’t been able to grab his coat before helping her with Donna so all he had on was his heather gray cable knit sweater.

“Steven!” She called out to him.

She could have waited until they were back inside where it was warm, but there was something symbolic to her about this driveway. It was where they had kissed and where they made up. It was where they met in the morning and where they parted at night. It was where she last saw her Steven in 1979 and she should have accepted the ride home that he had offered.

Steven turned back around and walked toward her, stuffing his hands into his jeans’ front pockets. “Yeah?”

“I, uh,” Jackie opened her purse and pulled out the piece of paper she had been carrying around with her for days, “I have been meaning to talk to you. About your poem.”

“Oh.” Steven stopped right in front of her, scratching the back of his neck. “The haiku.”

“Bless you.”

“What? No.” Steven frowned. “It’s a form of━”

“Japanese poetry. I know.” Jackie smiled at him. “I was just messing with you.”

“Oh.”

“Well,” Jackie unfolded the paper and smoothed out the creases, “I really, really liked it. But I think it works better as a _tanka_.”

“What?” Steven cocked his head in confusion as Jackie handed his poem back.

“It needed fourteen more syllables. A haiku reads 5-7-5, but a tanka is in the 5-7-5-7-7 format.” Jackie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “And is also what lovers would use when parting in the morning.”

She could barely hear the sounds of the party goers shouting out the countdown as Steven read aloud the altered poem.

“You and I speaking, soft words meant only for us, would be very cool.” Steven cleared his throat and continued on to Jackie’s addition. “But kissing would be cooler, as a language for just us.”

“What do you think?” Jackie asked softly, waiting for his response. He continued to stare at her blankly as he folded up the piece of paper. “Oh, God. You hated it. It was bad. Just forget━”

Jackie felt the paper press into her cheek when Steven cupped her face in his hands. His kiss started gently, chaste, but just like the first time they kissed in 1976, Jackie chased his mouth with her own open mouthed kisses and molded into Steven.

He tasted a bit like Old Milwaukee and pot, but he was warm, _so_ warm. Jackie hummed in delight when he rolled his tongue into her mouth and she gripped the back of his shirt, wanting to stay as close as possible. Steven seemed to have the same idea as his hands slipped from her face and into her hair, clutching the back of her head as he rubbed his thumbs along her jawline.

She had missed Steven so much. Staying away from him hadn’t changed how she felt and Buddy had been right: it was a real waste. Buddy had told Jackie once that who they loved wasn’t a choice. The only choice they could make was what they did about it.

So Jackie made her choice and she chose to be happy right now. She had no idea how long she would be stuck in the past and she was running around trying to make things better for herself in the future, but love—love wasn’t a waste. Steven was here, wanting her even though she wasn’t chasing after him. That had to mean something and Eric was probably right.

Steven pulled away first, resting his forehead on hers and causing his sunglasses to slide down the bridge of his nose and hit her lightly in the face. Jackie giggled and pecked him lightly on the mouth.

“What now?” Steven asked, still rubbing circles with his thumb against her jaw.

“You could kiss me again,” Jackie suggested hopefully, her voice breathy.

Steven exhaled a laugh through his nose and pressed a kiss to her mouth. He pulled her lower lip into his mouth and sucked on it. Jackie closed her eyes and felt him smiling against her mouth.

“Anything for you, Doll.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this isn't the end lol so much more has to happen.  
> to those that are sad about Fez and Buddy....they get more of a focus in the chapters for January and February.
> 
> I got rid of the christmas eve dance and moved snow prom from January to December. they had so many dances that weren't spaced out well.  
> so in order for PPHS to have most of their events I decided to make Snow Prom the winter formal and do away with the Christmas Eve dance so that way we can ignore the fact that Jackie was a senior in high school for 2 Christmases
> 
> I also thought Jackie after having dated Hyde and growing as a person and now being best friends with Buddy who is well liked (Hyde stated he was liked by everyone), would have been much more likable around the time of Snow Prom 1976.
> 
> You're probably wondering why there's no Big Rhonda...this time around because of the adjustment of events it made more sense for her to appear later on in the year and because Donna is convinced Hyde likes Jackie and should try to date her, there's no party to set Hyde up so Big Rhonda won't make her appearance and Fez doesn't catch feelings for her.
> 
> I have different headcanons for when Hyde and Jackie first had sex but for this fic I'm using the language the both of them had used in the early episodes of s5 and just go with them having had sex before everyone had found out they were fooling around. like Hyde saying he was messing around with Jackie was too strong of a term if they were just making out, but not crass enough to give any details of what they were doing.
> 
> usually i like to place their first time right after the college visits when they became more official, but for this I also wanna build on the insecurity Jackie had about their exclusivity. Just a more angsty depiction of the events where Jackie may be stuck because "hey this boy already got what he wanted from me maybe that's it for us now"
> 
> You know what made no sense about the career day episode? Jackie sat on Kelso’s lap in two different moments that when they edited the episode it came out as awkward cuz she wasn’t on his lap for any of her speaking parts in that scene it just cut to random parts without showing that she moved to sit there and also because they were supposed to have been broken up if we go by the order the episodes were aired. Just so messy.
> 
> If you are wondering about the Buddy comment that Eric is referring to about Jackie and Kelso? I took that from a real life convo I've had with friends. My gay friend went off on a straight friend and I could see Buddy who doesn't like Kelso doing the same.
> 
> The ice shack episode makes more sense to have happened before Hyde’s Christmas Rager because Kelso purposely made sure that Hyde didn’t know about his plans cuz he saw him as a threat.
> 
> Due to DM being 22 when T7S started and looking more like the age he was playing in s1-2 than s4 and on...I use a combo of his appearance in Beethoven’s Second and s1-2 to describe how he looks from age 16-17—especially cuz he was actually 16-17 in Beethoven’s Second. Even if he looked older for his age when he was in middle school (which was hinted at being canon for when he was like 14—a comment about his sideburns) I’m gonna act like these kids were actual teens and growing up lol
> 
> So baby fat and less defined features will be a thing lol
> 
> I don't wanna be harsh on Kat Peterson but like she treated Hyde badly let's be real there. People would probably have seen how badly it really was if the genders were swapped. Hyde at the time didn't really care but like I truly believe that after having all of Jackie's love that he would know his worth more. Just the face she made when Hyde tried to talk to her in front of her friends like that was bitchy and just no.
> 
> I also needed more Donna and Jackie moments. God. I'm just really into future!Jackie being a better friend to past!Donna because she's more mature and will be a better listener and have real advice, especially now that she has the experience of dating Hyde.
> 
> I like building up more about Jackie's school life and how her character being in a sitcom suffered and didn't get to grow in better ways.
> 
> Also dropping hints of another character and another pairing lol
> 
> I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter lol things should get interesting..


	7. i am a visitor here, i am not permanent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter is dedicated to the anon that sent me that long wonderful ask on tumblr about how they appreciated how I wrote all of the characters and was enjoying the friendships in the fic. Ask can be found [here](https://pain-somnia.tumblr.com/post/624564797202219008/1so-ive-been-re-reading-aoy-for-like-the)
> 
> I want to do a little introduction here now because this fic has been a journey now and we're all getting closer through it. My name is Day and I use they/them pronouns. Whenever you have a question about this fic go ahead and send me an ask on tumblr, my url is pain-somnia. That's my url 'cause I am chronically ill and, well, I suffer from some serious painsomnia.
> 
> Gonna write some notes on this chapter in the notes in the end but if there's anything I didn't cover you wanna know about, just shoot me an ask.
> 
> While writing this chapter especially the Buddy PoVs, Heather by Conan Gray and The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service kept playing through my mind. The latter was really the vibe (also what up I'm from the DC area lol) I had, just the feeling, and it's where I actually get the title of this chapter. That one line really encapsulates Buddy's feelings in his first PoV ever in this fic. I really hope you enjoy what I do with him here.
> 
> Also there's a link in this chapter and I would like you to check it out because it's art I had commissioned that I wanted done so that all of you could have a visual. I had it commissioned while I was plotting and writing and please don't judge me on how long this fic took to be updated lol
> 
> I hope you like the chapter!

_ January 1977 _

* * *

Kitty Forman’s answer to everything was baking and cooking. Unless the problem was that she was mad at her husband and children. Then the answer was to stop baking and cooking.

Which was what she did a couple days ago when Eric and Red forgot her birthday. She had only made Donna and Jackie waffles when the both of them had come over to give her a new pair of gloves they bought for her as a present and Kitty found out that Donna was eating chocolate bars for breakfast for the past week.

It was after that, that Kitty had offered to show the girls a few recipes now that she was cutting back on hours at the hospital.

Jackie wasn’t a baker and when it came to cooking Donna was somehow worse than she was, but it was always kind of fun to hang out in the kitchen with Kitty. She never really got to do things like that with her own mother.

As far back as Jackie could remember, she could only recall her mother ordering the cook to make finger sandwiches for their tea parties. Pamela Burkhart made the tea herself, just a habit she had from before she got married. Pam and five year old Jackie would have tea in the back garden, dressed in their matching sundresses. Her mother would correct her posture the entire time and have her practice her etiquette, but it was still one of Jackie’s happier childhood memories with her mother.

“The secret to my fudge,” Kitty paused for dramatic effect, “is a splash of Kahlúa.”

She dropped a shot into the saucepan and set the bottle down on the counter. The phone rang a second later and she turned to pick up the phone. As soon as her back was turned, Jackie quickly grabbed the bottle and took a swig of the coffee liqueur.

“Jackie!” Donna scolded in a whisper, laughing as she snatched the bottle away.

“It’s delicious, Donna.” Jackie giggled, wiping her mouth. Donna shook her head but looked over at Kitty who was now writing something down on a notepad. She took a quick swig of the Kahlúa before setting it back down.

“Holy crap.” Donna touched her mouth, her eyes wide. “That  _ is _ delicious. Damn. Why the hell do we settle for beer?”

Jackie continued to stir the contents in the saucepan waiting for it to boil. Unlike Donna, she had future knowledge of Kitty’s fudge recipe and how to make it. Once it started to really boil she handed the wooden spoon to Donna and reduced the heat.

Kitty smiled in approval and balled her fists on her hips. “Have you made fudge before? Easier than baking a pie right? Let me grab the candy thermometer so we can check the temperature.”

Once the temperature was checked and Kitty was satisfied she removed the pan from the heat and poured vanilla extract and butter into the mixture. Kitty took over the rest of the work while Donna licked the spoon and Jackie pulled herself up to sit on the counter space by the sink.

“We just have to wait for it to cool and then we’ll have delicious fudge.” Kitty gathered eggs and started cracking them, separating the whites into a glass bowl. “Now it’s time to make the meringue for the pie.”

“I can’t touch eggs.” Donna turned and frowned at Jackie. “They come from a chicken’s butt, Donna.”

“How are you a better cook than I am?” Donna grumbled.

“Hey. You can’t cook chicken and I can’t bake to save my life.” Although most of Jackie’s more advanced cooking skills had been brought back from the future thanks to spending most of her time in the Forman kitchen with Kitty or Steven. “I think we’re even here.”

“I can  _ so _ cook chicken.”

“Donna, sweetie,” Jackie clapped a hand on Donna’s shoulder, “the chicken was raw enough to still be clucking at me.”

Midge had been at one of her classes in Kenosha and, sick of eating sandwiches, Donna attempted to make something for dinner. The results were horrendous and no amount of love for her friend was going to make Jackie eat her chicken.

Kitty laughed as she beat the egg whites. “You two are still young. You’ll get better at kitchen stuff with time.”

_ Not likely _ , Jackie thought. Eighteen year old Donna had given Eric food poisoning with her Chicken Pinciotti and Jackie had turned Steven’s favorite cookies into hockey pucks.

The three of them turned at the sound of the sliding door opening. Buddy slipped in, closing the door behind him and sniffing the air, pleased.

“It’s warm in here  _ and _ you’re baking?” Buddy took a seat at the breakfast table. “I made the right decision in ditching the guys.”

“Weren’t you guys supposed to watch a movie?” Donna asked, taking a seat next to him.

Buddy looked over at Kitty to see if she was paying attention and shrugged. “I didn’t care for the movie they picked. Wasn’t my kind of thing.”

_ Oh God. _ Jackie straightened up, understanding dawning on her features and Buddy raised his brows and pointed at her, knowing she got his meaning.  _ Why would they take  _ Buddy  _ to an X-rated film? _

“Well, I hope Eric gets back home soon. My sister Paula is coming to visit for the first time in six years and I’m making pot roast,” Kitty ended her statement in a sing-song.

Jackie hopped off of the counter and gestured to Buddy and Donna to follow her down to the basement. In the original 1977, Jackie had gotten back together with Michael and he had left the nudie flick early because he felt guilty for watching other naked people. He had been very sweet during the first few weeks of their reconciliation.

This time around there was no way he would leave the film early because Jackie hadn’t decided that Michael had matured and deserved a second chance. In fact, she now knew he hadn’t really matured at all and even if he had, she was dating Steven now.

She was dating Steven.

They two of them hadn’t told their friends yet and Jackie wasn’t entirely sure how to come out and say it. In the original 1977, she and Steven were caught making out and had to confess to what was going on. Everything sort of fell into place after that.

It had only been about two weeks but things were going well so far. They had already been walking together in the halls at school, so the only difference was that now they would sneak kisses under stairwells or meet in his Camino during lunch period. She and Steven weren’t trying to hide anything but with the both of them working and Jackie having after school activities, it wasn’t like they were around the others much at the same time.

“Have you met Eric’s aunt before?” Buddy asked Donna, taking a seat on the couch.

“I think when I was ten, we saw her in the back of a police car.” Donna frowned and went to put a record on. “But I’m not sure.”

Jackie took a seat on the couch’s arm rest closest to the record player. She wasn’t sure if she should give Donna a heads up about the X-rated film the boys had gone to see. It could save her the unpleasantness of Eric’s intended move but the discussion that followed was something that had been a relationship milestone for the two of them.

“So you know your boyfriend and his friends went to see a stag film, right?” Buddy’s question was directed at Donna, saving Jackie from having to be the one to tell her.

“What!?”

Jackie and Buddy were then subject to listening to Donna rant about pornography and complain about Eric watching other people have sex.

“I thought the magazines and posters were bad enough and now he’s sneaking into X-rated films? What, is he already bored with our sex life?”

“Aren’t you?” Jackie asked. “I mean, you’re with Eric.”

Donna paused in her pacing to shoot Jackie a glare.

Buddy groaned, covering his face with his hands. “It’s just a guy thing, Donna. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“What I wanna know is,” Jackie examined her nails, chipping at them, “how do guys watch that together? Isn’t that weird or uncomfortable?”

“Why do you think I left?” Buddy blew a raspberry. “It wasn’t really doing it for me anyway.”

The past week was interesting for Buddy as well. He hadn’t discussed it with Jackie, but he had decided to move on from feeling sad about Fez’s rejection. Everything seemed back to normal and he was hanging out with the guys again, but Donna and Jackie weren’t buying the act.

Buddy would deflect any attempts to discuss his feelings or only want hugs and no talking.

“Oh, hey guys.” Eric entered the basement followed by Steven.

Donna looked just about ready to launch into a tirade when Steven moved around her and cupped Jackie’s face in his hands and kissed her chastely.

“Hey,” he greeted her before making his way over to his seat.

The basement was silent as the other three in the room tried to take in what had just happened. Donna floundered like a fish, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Eric kept pointing between the two of them like he was trying to put together two pieces to a puzzle and Buddy had actually jumped up and almost fell over the back of the couch.

“What just happened?” Donna finally found her voice.

“Why do you taste like Kahlúa?” Steven ignored Donna’s question and licked his lips.

Considering how casual he was acting, Jackie figured she would do the same. She stood up from her seat on the arm rest and followed him to his chair and took a seat on his left thigh. Without missing a beat, Steven wrapped his arm around her waist and supported her.

“It’s apparently Mrs. Forman’s secret ingredient for her fudge.”

“Huh.”

“What the hell, Hyde?” Eric shouted. Jackie had expected his reaction to be the worst of the three of them. She braced herself for any lame Yoko comments.

She knew that it was very likely that the others would react badly to her and Steven going out. They were friends with Michael for over ten years and had always been loyal to him and considered her an outsider. The only person Jackie knew would be on her side was Buddy. He had even encouraged her to pursue something with Steven.

“I thought we agreed that Donna’s best friend was off limits.”

Jackie stiffened in Steven’s hold. That was not what she was expecting at all. In the timeline she had come from, Eric had been a jackass about the whole thing and acted as if she were some great evil that was trying to violate a ten year old friendship for the hell of it.

“Yeah, I thought I was your best friend, Jackie.” Donna’s cheeks flared red, hurt clouding her eyes. “Why am I just now finding out about this? I should have been first to know.”

“Technically,” Jackie looped her arms around Steven’s shoulders, “ Steven should have been first to know.” Donna blew a raspberry in her direction and rolled her eyes. “And we were kind of busy seeing if this works for us first before letting you all know.” She paused for a moment, waiting for someone to try to jump into the conversation. When no one spoke up and just continued to stare at her she added, “Well, it works and now you all know.”

Steven’s grip on her tightened and she kissed him on his cheek. He was taking her invading his space very well. There was no need to shift to get comfortable or any questions asked. He had let her settle into his lap as if she had always been doing it. In all fairness, in this timeline she  _ was _ always in his personal bubble whenever they were alone and talking. It was just that now instead of their thighs touching she was using him as her personal chair.

“Do we?” Buddy asked, settling back on the couch, sitting cross legged. “Do we all? Or is it still possible for me to ruin Kelso’s day?”

Eric gasped dramatically and covered his mouth with his hand, pointing at everyone with the other. “ _ Kelso! _ ”

That was a familiar reaction. Jackie rolled her eyes and waited for Donna and Eric to start acting like she owed Michael anything.

“He’s going to flip out!” Eric tugged on his hair. “He’s been talking about getting back together with Jackie for weeks.”

“So?” Donna frowned and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her earlier hurt from not being informed first fizzling into annoyance. “Jackie can date whoever she wants and besides, he’s been sleeping with every skank from here to Kenosha.”

“True.” Eric nodded in agreement. “But Hyde seriously. Haven’t you done enough to the guy? Just yesterday you stole his pants after Phys Ed and he had to walk around in his gym shorts. And it was snowing.”

“So?” Steven curled one arm around Jackie’s waist and shrugged with his right arm. “That’s tough love, man.”

“Where was I that I missed this?” Buddy asked. “That would have been awesome for the school paper.”

“I think you’ve been hanging out with Hyde a little too much, Buddy.” Donna took a seat by him on the couch. “But this does raise the question of how you two are going to tell him. Kelso may be a tool, but he’s  _ our _ tool.”

“I know a guy that can make a banner,” Buddy offered. “Or we can write it on a cake. It’s bad news, but hey he gets cake.”

“That sounds more like something we should do for Fez.” Steven had leaned his face into Jackie’s shoulder and she could feel his jaw move when he talked. She could feel her cheeks heat up as she delighted in his closeness. It had been far too long since she was able to be that affectionate with him.

“Where is Fez?” Jackie asked, hoping to redirect the conversation. She knew she needed to talk to Michael soon, but was going to put it off for as long as possible. She hoped he would have moved on from her already considering it had been almost six months since she broke up with him, but when he had abandoned her and had gone to California for three months he had still been after her despite having skanked around all summer.

“He, uh,” Eric’s face twisted in discomfort, “had to go home.”

“Ew!” Jackie shuddered in disgust and hid her face in Steven’s shoulder. 

Jackie’s disgusted reaction seemed to flip a switch in Donna and she remembered what Buddy had told them earlier. Jackie lifted her head and caught her shoving Eric.

“What the hell, Eric?”

“What did I do?”

Donna raised her hands and then clenched them. Her face flushed red and she chewed on her lower lip looking as if she couldn’t form the words she wanted to let out. Jackie watched in amusement as Eric braced himself for a Donna outburst. He had his hands up and was rocking side to side matching Donna’s movements as she glared at him.

Instead of yelling at him, Donna released a sound of frustration and stormed out through the outside door.

“I’m guessing she found out about the nudie flick?” Steven asked, humor making his tone light.

“How could she have possibly—?” Eric cut himself off and pointed accusingly at Buddy. “Morgan.”

Buddy nodded and gave him an apologetic look.

“Huh. My money was on Jackie,” Steven confessed.

“What?” Buddy and Eric both exclaimed, turning their attention on the couple.

“I actually kept my mouth shut about it.” Jackie was a little proud of herself for having been able to keep it a secret. Normally she would have blabbed to Donna right away but Donna was already dealing with her parents being weirder than usual, she didn’t need to worry about her skinny pervert boyfriend on top of that.

“You told Jackie you were going to go watch a stag film and she didn’t kill you?” Eric asked in disbelief.

Jackie shrugged. In 1978 he had gone to a strip club for Eric’s bachelor party and that was much more personal than a movie. It had been an interesting conversation when she had explained what she had been doing that night as well.

“Why punish him for being honest? It’s not like he was touching another girl.”

Steven’s inability to lie to her when they were dating had been both infuriating and also one of the best parts of their relationship. She had learned her lesson about picking her battles when it came to him refusing to lie about Brooke being attractive, but it was also refreshing to have someone that wouldn’t lie to her. Her parents lied to her, Michael lied to her, even Donna had lied to her sometimes when she didn’t tell her about Michael’s infidelities, but Steven told her the truth always.

Which is why it had hurt so much when he broke his promises towards the end of their relationship in the future.

“So Hyde and I both go to a stag film and  _ I’m _ the only one in trouble with my girlfriend?” Eric groaned and slumped back on the couch, his head resting on the couch back.

“Bites the big one, huh?” Steven taunted him. Jackie smiled to herself but refrained from reacting to what had just occurred. Steven could have denied that she was his girlfriend but he hadn’t. Things were already progressing better than they did in her original timeline.

Eric scoffed and glared at Jackie as if she were the one to blame for his misfortune.

“You have a feminist girlfriend that finds pornography degrading to women and has already told you her feelings about porn,” she snapped at Eric, not appreciating the dirty looks he was giving her. “What did you expect to happen? That she’d reward you for going behind her back and doing something she wouldn’t like?”

Eric shot her another dirty look and slumped further into the couch cushions. Jackie could have helped him solve his problem, but she wanted to see how everything would play out if he was left alone. At least there was a chance he wouldn’t try to stick anything up God’s blind spot on Donna.

God, Jackie hoped he wouldn’t try it.

“So am I allowed to record you guys telling Kelso you’re dating now?” Buddy asked, clapping his hands together once and grinning impishly at the couple.

“Buddy. No.” Jackie shook her head. He was finding too much joy in how badly Kelso was going to react to her dating Steven.

Buddy rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “Fine then. Come on, Eric. You have a neighbor girl to grovel to.”

“You’re going to help me?” Eric smiled sweetly at Buddy and pressed a hand to his heart, touched.

“What? No.” Buddy shook his head and chuckled. “You’re on your own, man. The sooner you talk to her the better though.”

Buddy stood up and grabbed both of Eric’s hands, yanking him up in one fluid motion and then ushered him out the door. They could hear Eric groaning all the way up the cement stairs.

Jackie giggled and moved over to the now empty couch. It was pretty funny watching Buddy drag their friends around to try and fix things. He did it with her constantly when she tried to avoid doing something. Just yesterday he had dragged her to sit at her old lunch table so that she wouldn’t be making an enemy out of Valerie, the varsity head cheerleader. Jackie had to play nice and sit with her on the days that they shared a lunch period because without her endorsement, Jackie could kiss the head cheerleader position goodbye when the seniors graduated.

“Hey.” Steven moved to take the seat next to her on the couch and kissed her, just soft enough to still be considered innocent. “You’re really not going to blow up on me about the stupid movie?”

“Do you want me to?” Jackie raised a brow at him. “Because we can fight about it if you want. We can get a relationship milestone out of the way right now and have our first fight.”

“I’d rather skip it and get right to making up.”

“We can do that.” Jackie batted her lashes and wrapped her arms around his neck and scooted closer so that her right leg was over his thigh and between his legs. “We can save our energy for an actual fight that’s very likely to happen.”

Steven nodded slightly in agreement and cupped her face in his hands. She loved when he did that. His hands framed her cheeks perfectly and she felt for the moment as if she was the absolute center of the universe.

Jackie was glad that there were no differences in the way Steven kissed and touched her with the way 1979 Steven once had. It made it easier for her to let the feeling of being with him consume her and pretend they were the same person.

She knew that technically they were, but the Steven she had left behind in 1979 she had broken up with because they no longer were in sync. She loved him and gave so much of herself to being with him and supporting him and he didn’t even care. This Steven was how Steven was before the stress of growing up had caught up to the both of them.

There were moments when trickles of guilt seeped into her stomach when Steven wrapped her hair around his fingers when he kissed her deeply on the beat up old couch in the Formans’ basement. It wasn’t technically cheating. They were the same person and 1979 Steven and she were broken up. But it didn’t stop Jackie from imagining 1979 Steven pissed beyond belief if he ever found out about her getting involved with the younger version of him.

“Steven?” Kitty called down from the kitchen. “Come join us for dinner.”

“Dammit,” Steven muttered against her mouth. His breath fanned against her face and Jackie giggled at the warmth and peppermint scent.

“I’m actually having dinner with my parents today.” Steven cocked his head and raised his brows in surprise. “I know! I was shocked when it wasn’t rescheduled.”

Jackie had forgotten how often her parents had planned family dinners after her father was re-elected as a city councilman. It was always weird that the dinners were scheduled in advance and she would have to remember to put them in her day planner as if they were appointments, but she always took what she could get when she was younger.

“Have fun?” Steven’s face scrunched up in confusion. Jackie pecked him on the lips and tapped him on the chest until he pulled back and let her up from under him.

The both of them marched up to the kitchen. Jackie had to grab her coat and purse that she had left in there which unfortunately meant that she had to run into Eric’s aunt.

“Your face is the  _ perfect _ canvas,” Aunt Paula began her pitch, pinching Jackie’s chin between her thumb and index finger. She moved Jackie’s head from side to side and examined her face. “Such beautiful skin. Have you ever tried Kathy May cosmetics?”

“Sorry. My mother just brought me a whole bunch of Mary Quant from London—you know, designer label.”

_ As if I would take makeup advice from someone that dusts  _ that _ much blue eyeshadow. Talk about garrish. It’s not even her color. Just because a shade is in fashion, it doesn’t mean just anyone can use it! _

“And I’m sixteen. What’s in with the teen girls are glosses and Kathy May doesn’t carry any peach shimmer gloss or the same range of shades in lip pots as Max Factor or Cover Girl for my age demographic.”

Aunt Paula’s smile dropped and her eyes went wide in bemusement.

“Just something you should already know if you’re in makeup sales.”

“Okaaayy.” Steven put a hand on the small of her back and pushed her towards the glass sliding door, grabbing her coat and purse from the high top as they passed it. “I’m going to drop Jackie off at home now.”

“You would look darling in our upcoming Spring collection,” Aunt Paula commented sweetly. “Such vibrant spring colors.”

“I’m an autumn!” Jackie shouted back over her shoulder. How could a makeup saleswoman not see that? Some people were really testing her on the part of the list she created where she said she would try to be nicer. “And a winter!”

“Holy crap.” Steven stopped pushing her and Jackie turned forward and saw the Pepto-Bismol colored Thunderbird sitting in the driveway.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this about the color pink, but who the hell did that to this poor car?” Jackie brushed the pads of her fingers against the side panel of the Thunderbird. “This is a terrible shade.”

“You would drive a pink car if it was the right shade?” Steven shot her an incredulous look.

“Duh! Pink is an expensive custom selection, you would have to make sure it’s the  _ right _ shade. Cherry blossom would be fantastic.”

Her dream car would be pink, but that’s all that it was: a dream. She had splurged enough during the holidays, but Jackie had to go back to saving a majority of her paycheck.

Back in 1978, she had an early acceptance to Marquette and also to UW. She had applied to other schools out of state and was still waiting on their answers but with the amount of money that was needed for tuition, books, and housing, there was no chance she was going to be leaving Wisconsin unless she decided Chicago was the direction she was going in. Most of her savings bonds had been cashed out when her mother hadn’t come back and she needed to pay for bills and groceries to continue living in the mansion.

She had looked into the University of Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology and had wanted Steven to visit the campuses with her but bailed on the idea and made it a long weekend trip with her mother, telling her friends that she was going to Florida.

They, of course, readily believed the trip to the beach. She was sure none of them would have taken her seriously about visiting any college campuses for herself.

It was messed up, extremely messed up, but Jackie had reverted back to lying about the serious parts of her life and filling every conversation she had with meaningless chatter about money, makeup, and outfits that she knew no one else cared about and she barely believed anymore. She didn’t even feel like discussing things with Steven because he was beginning to feel distant. He was shooting down conversations she wanted to have and things she normally would have to simply ask about, she had to beg for him to even consider.

It was so different than the Steven of 1977. He placed her hand on the gear shift and covered it with his own. Having a manual car never held him back from holding Jackie’s hand when he drove. In order for them to do that it required her to sit closer to him on the bench seat and she enjoyed the close proximity. It was just so much like how things used to be with her old Steven.

“You don’t want me to walk you to the door?” Steven asked, shifting the Camino into park outside of the iron gate of the Burkhart estate.

“You think you’re ready to officially meet Jack and Pam Burkhart? After only two weeks?” Jackie flicked his pot leaf belt buckle.

Steven was right out of her father’s nightmares. He was scruffy with sideburns and was almost always wearing his aviators. He was wearing his old scuffed up boots, frayed jeans with the back pocket ripped, and a black dashiki under his flannel coat. And that was just what Jack would judge from the book’s cover.

“What? Isn’t that how it goes?” Steven grinned impishly. “I’m your rebellious phase—the guy daddy wouldn’t approve of. You have to show me off though in order to get his attention.”

“Oh, please.” Jackie rolled her eyes and nudged him with her shoulder. “I have a shrill and demanding voice. I don’t need you for that.”

And both of her Stevens knew that that wasn’t her style. If she wanted to get her parents’ attention she would seek it through their approval. Her only real acts of rebellion towards her father had been her refusal to dump Michael—which had resulted in her being cut off financially—and then her refusal to break up with Steven when Pam had let it slip to Jack that his father was William Barnett, an African-American man. That had resulted in Jackie refusing to speak to or visit her father again until he apologized.

Jack Burkhart was such an asshole and it killed her that she still loved him regardless. It reminded her of Steven’s secret, the one he whispered to her when they were alone in the dark of his room, snuggling in his cot.

_ “The Formans are cool and I owe them a lot.” Steven swallowed heavily. “But I get it about your mom. The first few weeks of living with Forman and his family...I still expected Edna to come back. I woke up everyday thinking that it might be the day she finally returned.” _

Edna slapped Steven when he got too lippy and got so inebriated that Steven had to play the parent for his mother and then there was Pam who wouldn’t let Jackie eat bacon and made her stand on the scale three times a week all three years of middle school. And yet when their mothers left them behind, there was still a part of them that was waiting for them to come back to them.

Despite his attitude and lack of respect for authority—with the exception of Red Forman—people forgot that he was only sixteen when his mother left. And yeah he wanted to leave her first, but he was still a child when it all went down.

“I don’t pick who I date based on who my parents may or may not like. If I did, then I would have dated Jake Bradley when he was interested.”

Steven scowled and Jackie couldn’t help but kiss him on the chin right at his cleft. Her old Steven hadn’t liked when Jake Bradley had confessed that he had had a crush on Jackie right before graduation and she was single after the nurse incident. It made sense that this Steven would carry similar jealous feelings as well, even if he denied them.

Steven practically pulled Jackie into his lap when she peppered kisses along his jaw. She giggled lightly when he returned the action and pressed kisses all over her face, starting at her forehead, down to her cheeks, and stopping finally at her nose.

“Is that all I get?” Jackie brushed her nose against his, mocking the way he would ask her the same question when she was playing coy. She squealed when he grabbed her by the back of her head and crushed his lips to hers.

“I have to go,” she breathed against his mouth between his kisses.

“Yeah, you do,” Steven responded in a dismissive tone. He snaked his hands inside Jackie’s open coat, pressed them against her back and pulled her closer to him. He groaned softly into her mouth when Jackie slid her hand under his dashiki and scraped the tips of her fingernails lightly against his ribs.

It was the first time in this timeline that Jackie had done that and pressed her hands to the warm skin of his torso and the sensation had her parting her lips and tracing the seam of Steven’s mouth with her tongue. He opened his mouth to her instantly and rolled his tongue against hers.

Jackie felt his fingers trailing underneath her sweater and knew she had to put a stop to what they were doing. They were right in front of her house and the Camino was idling. One of the neighbors was going to catch them and tell her parents that she was necking inside a vehicle that only a delinquent would drive.

“I’m going to be late, Steven,” Jackie scolded, pulling herself away from him. She patted her hair down and straightened her clothes.

“Hey, you’re the one that can’t keep her tongue to herself.”

“Oh, I could.” Jackie tugged on his belt buckle and then dropped it. “You just wouldn’t enjoy that much.”

Steven rolled his eyes but pecked her on the lips. She smiled against his mouth and kissed him back.

“Okay, I’m really going to be late now.” Jackie slid across the bench seat to the passenger door and hopped out. She walked around the Camino to the driver side door and Steven rolled his window down. “Can you pick me up after my shift tomorrow?”

”Yeah, I can. I might be late because I’m working tomorrow.” Steven scratched the area below his lower lip with his thumb. “Your dad still not letting you drive the Lincoln?”

“I’m sure he’d let me borrow it if I ask, but this way I can spend more time with you.” Jackie leaned in through the open window and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Stuffing her hands into her coat’s pockets, Jackie walked up the driveway, kicking up some of the gravel with her boots with each step.

So far things were going great with Steven. They still hung out like before they started dating but they also spent time like she used to with 1979 Steven. They were younger here and the future—although not as distant as a teen might think—wasn’t looming right over their heads.

Jackie just needed to figure out how to bring it all up to Michael before someone—most likely Michael—got hurt.

* * *

Hyde switched his last load of laundry into the dryer and then pulled himself up on the deep freeze next to Buddy. The other boy gave him a tight lipped smile and then turned his attention to the couple on the couch.

He had almost forgotten about Patty and how Fez had dated her for a short time. He had asked her out weeks later than he had in Hyde’s original timeline so Hyde hadn’t expected her to make another appearance in their basement. Their original relationship hadn’t lasted long but she was his first girlfriend before he officially hooked up with Crazy Caroline. The relationship might not have lasted long but at least Patty wasn’t cucko-for-cocoa-puffs.

“So what’s up, Buddy?”

“He didn’t even pay attention to her during the blind date.” Buddy scoffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “He was all over the blonde chick.”

Hyde exhaled a puff of air, blowing it upwards out of the corner of his mouth into his curly locks and watched them go up and down in his peripheral. He didn’t really know what to say to Buddy. Patty had transferred from Sacred Heart to Point Place High at the beginning of December, which made sense considering her political views and her wishy washy takes on religion.

He remembered from the original 1976 how Fez had gotten her attention with love poems that he kept stuffing into her locker, but no one ever got the answer as to why he had decided to turn his attention on her.

Back in his timeline, Fez had been obsessed with Jackie until he got a girlfriend and while at the time it had been sort of funny to see Jackie knocked down a peg when she lost her little worshipper, it had also been fucked up how Fez stopped respecting her as a person when Jackie was trying to be nice to Patty and congratulate Fez on getting a girl.

Hyde had been too caught up on the fact that he had been rejected by a girl with similar interests just for Fez of all people to start going out with her to take interest in making fun of Jackie or to really notice how obnoxious Fez had been. It was eye opening though how little Kelso actually did in his relationship with Jackie at the time. It was no wonder she demanded weeks of romance from him with no fooling around.

In this timeline the both of them were friends and Jackie wasn’t like how she was when she dated Kelso but more how she was after she finally moved on from him so Hyde had no clue how Fez having a girlfriend now was going to affect their relationship.

“Jackie doesn’t like her,” Buddy muttered, leaning over so his forearms rested on top of his thighs. “Partially out of solidarity ‘cause I don’t like her. Partially ‘cause Patty may have said something about her being shallow and falling prey to corporate America or whatever. And Patty doesn’t like Jackie because Jackie shot back about how Patty’s pseudo-rebel with a cause act was getting boring and how she forgot that without consumers like Jackie the economic state of our nation could be worse off than it is and that her shopping and the shopping of others is what helps to drive growth in economic recoveries. Which is kind of important considering we’re in a recession.”

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, that was Donna’s reaction.” Buddy blew a pathetically weak raspberry. “I sometimes wonder if you guys all think Jackie’s head is full of cotton candy just because she doesn’t go on long winded rants about stuff like that and instead chooses to focus on things that make her happy.”

“I think I’ve heard something similar about the economy from someone else I know,” Hyde mumbled, put off by the accusation.

“Really? Who?”

“You wouldn’t know them.”

And Buddy wouldn't. Hell, Hyde wasn’t even supposed to know she existed, but it was 1977 so Angie was currently in college and majoring in mathematics. The thing about consumers helping drive economic growth sounded exactly like something his older sister would say. She was brainy and understood a lot about business except for dealing with people as people and not just stats. She barely knew anything about music which killed him considering he had to work with her and was related to her.

Angie had also been on his case a lot back in 1979 about his attitude and how he was an even bigger grouch ever since Jackie had broken up with him. Hyde had been stubborn and refused to acknowledge that he had any feelings whatsoever about their breakup.

Forman chose that moment to come bounding down the steps from the kitchen and hop on top of the dryer.

“Donna should be back soon from the bookstore and picking up Jackie so we can all go ice skating soon.”

Buddy groaned and his arms slipped further towards his knees and his head dropped between his legs. “How did you guys convince me to go ice skating with all of you?”

“If it helps,” Forman chuckled, “Kelso is going too and only two out of three couples are known to him so technically it’s not like you’re really a third wheel.”

“How does Kelso still not know?” Buddy lifted his head up just enough so he could look at Hyde. Hyde and Forman both shrugged. Forman didn’t have an answer and Hyde refused to say anything on the matter.

It was now three weeks of dating Jackie and the both of them still hadn’t told Kelso. Donna had told them they should just rip the bandaid off, but it wasn’t that easy. Forman’s suggestion was to make him special brownies and just wait until they took effect.

“It probably would have been a good day to have dropped the news when he found out the Henderson’s got a new dog.” Forman gave him a knowing look and Hyde couldn’t help but laugh at how sure he seemed about it.

“If I get him a puppy do you think he’ll get over it?” Buddy asked, sitting back up.

“You would give Kelso a dog?” Hyde furrowed his brows and pursed his lips at the idea. Jackie would kill them if she knew their idea was to essentially trade Kelso a dog for her.

“It could work.” Forman nodded his head and jostled his arms with the movement.

Hyde was saved from explaining how it was a horrible idea when Jackie and Donna came in through the basement door from the outside earlier than expected. Jackie looked crestfallen while Donna looked downright pissed, her face pink from a combination of the cold and anger.

“What’s going on?” Forman hopped off of the dryer and Jackie stormed right by him and wrapped her arms around Hyde, her face pushing into his chest.

“I was fired,” Jackie murmured against him.

“What?” Buddy and Hyde asked at the same time.

“Supposedly The Cheese Palace isn’t going to need her anymore now that the holiday season is over and they are supposedly going to have a drop in business so they let her go,” Donna explained. “It’s Wisconsin. All people consume here is cheese and sausage!”

“And beer,” Forman added. Hyde and Buddy nodded in agreement.

“Why are  _ you _ the angry one?” Patty spoke up from her place on the couch. She and Fez had finally popped out of their personal bubble when the door had burst open.

Donna crossed her arms and looked at Jackie before sighing. “Jackie wouldn’t let me kick that munchkin’s ass.”

“Everything was fine but Todd has been acting weird ever since Steven started picking me up from work.”

_ Crap. _

In the 1977 Hyde had already experienced, Jackie had lost her job after the whole kiss incident. Todd had apparently been expecting her and Kelso to break up and for Jackie to become available to him. Despite Kelso taking off for California, Jack had continued to keep Jackie cut off for the summer. In hindsight it probably had more to do with him trying to cut back on spending while he attempted to hide his embezzlement than punishing Jackie for her twelve hour engagement at only sixteen years old.

Eventually Hyde hooked up with Jackie and it was easier to pick her up from work to go fool around. Todd had seen them together and then told Jackie he needed to let her go.

It seemed no matter the timeline, Hyde was going to be involved in Jackie losing her Cheese Maiden job.

“It’s fine though.” Jackie waved her hand dismissively and shook her head. “I told him I would get my lawyer dad to sue him if he didn't give me a good recommendation for the next job I apply to. I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go skating and forget the whole thing.”

Over Jackie’s head, Hyde caught Donna’s eye. Donna gave him that expectant look he always disliked. That look was one of the reasons they began calling her Mom. He shot her back a look of his own, not sure exactly she wanted him to do in that moment with all of their friends present.

Just as Jackie had pulled away from him, Kelso came in through the basement door, his skates laced together and thrown over his shoulder. The narrow misses of Kelso finding them in compromising positions were getting ridiculous.

“Are we going skating or what?” He asked, looking around the room at everyone.

Because of the inclusion of Patty, space was getting tight in the Vista Cruiser again. Hyde offered to take the Camino and follow them. As soon as he made the suggestion, Buddy agreed and ushered Jackie to the truck and stated that they would ride with him.

“So, Buddy,” Hyde began as he pulled up next to the Cruiser at a stoplight, “do you have some secret ice skating talent you’re going to break out tonight?”

“No, just the basic skills one would have from living in Point Place where our water freezes from November all the way to April and Kelso is mooning us.”

Unsurprisingly, Kelso had taken the chance to flash his pasty ass at them. He wasn’t happy at being left behind with the Forman-Pinciotti and Fez-Patty couples, but Buddy had refused to switch places with him. When he had tried to climb into the bed of the Camino, Donna had grabbed Kelso by the ear and dragged him inside of the Cruiser, reprimanding him about his poor choices and how that was a terrible idea in winter.

“Why do you ask anyway?”

“Just wondering if it’s another rich kid thing and if I need to expect another show off.” Jackie reached under his coat and pinched the skin at his hip. He flinched, but held tightly to the steering wheel. Hyde had expected her to do something but was unable to react as he made a turn.

“I should be allowed to flaunt my many talents.” Jackie turned her nose up cutely and pouted. “It’s not my fault  _ some _ people don’t know how to skate.”

_ Crap. _

In 1977, the real 1977, Hyde hadn’t known how to ice skate. It was the first winter he was able to afford to rent skates when he went out with his friends but he chose instead to do what he always did and wait on the sidelines and watch Kelso make a fool of himself, crashing into random people—mostly a practicing Fez—and falling. Donna and Eric skated laps, holding hands and acting like the perfect couple. Jackie on the other hand had told Kelso to stay away from her after the first time they had tried to circle the rink together holding hands and he had dragged her down. She had hoped that he would have improved from the previous winter but nothing had changed.

On her own, Jackie had overlapped all of their friends. She skated backwards circles around Donna and Eric and did an ice skating version of her roller disco routine, incomporting more leaps and jumps. Hyde had waited for her to screw up and fall but she danced on the ice without a care. At least until Kelso was unable to stop and had slammed into her.

The following winter they had all gone ice skating again, but Jackie had insisted on Hyde getting on the ice. She had whined and pouted until she got her way but was patient with him as soon as he got on the ice. She held his hands and skated backwards until he got the hang of it. He fell multiple times and she laughed at him, shrieking when he pulled her down with him.

He now knew how to skate just fine, but that wasn’t something the Hyde of 1977 could do and his friends knew that. It would be one thing to breeze by his friends with new skating skills, but Jackie would ask him a million questions.

“So what are you guys gonna do about Kelso?” Buddy asked as they approached the outdoor skating rink that popped up every January. It was one of those things that Hyde had never realized the LoPPs organized every winter. It was like they touched everything in town.

“I was kind of expecting him to have a new girlfriend or something by now so that we could just give him the news and he wouldn’t be able to say anything.”

Buddy laughed, slapping his knee. He stared out the window, his laughter dying down until all it did was escape in a few breathy chuckles.

“That’s a stupid idea, Jackie. I still don’t understand why you guys care so much.”

Buddy’s experiences with Kelso was of Kelso just being that stupid classmate of his and then the ex-boyfriend of his best friend. He was pretty limited to who Kelso really was.

To Hyde, Kelso was a lot more than that. They were best friends and had been since first grade. When it was just him, Forman, Kelso, and Donna, Kelso and Hyde had been the ones on the same team against Donna and Forman. The two of them were the ones getting into trouble together like snaking beers from Kelso’s father, John, and throwing rocks at cars. The both of them even shared hand me down coats and sweaters from Kelso’s older brothers because Hyde had gone without most of the time. Some of Hyde’s nicer cardigans and cable knits were snagged from Kelso’s eldest brother, James.

He wasn’t going to give up what he had with Jackie, but Hyde also wasn’t going to let go of the friend he had since he was six either.

* * *

Buddy sighed to himself, rubbing his hands together for warmth. He had been wearing gloves earlier, but they had gotten wet from the impromptu snowball fight Hyde and Kelso had started when everyone was lacing up their skates.

The good thing about going skating in the evening was that families and younger kids didn’t crowd the rink, even on weekends.

The downside was how it highlighted how utterly single he was.

Buddy took a swig of the warm drink Hyde had given him from his thermos and his eyes went wide. Hyde smirked at him and mimed drinking at him. Buddy grinned broadly and took another gulp of the hot cocoa and peppermint schnapps.

“Don’t let me get too sloppy or I might get too honest,” Buddy warned him and Hyde nodded in understanding before turning his attention back to the rink where Jackie was attempting to teach Donna how to skate backwards. Eric trailed next to them, swaying side to side.

“Jackie will kick me if I let you get drunk in public anyway.”

His friendship with Steven Hyde was one he had never expected. It was one his parents wouldn’t have approved of last year because of Hyde’s mother, but that had changed after they found out that Red Forman was his foster dad. They still didn’t like it, but no one in Point Place messed with Red.

There was something different about Hyde that Buddy couldn’t quite comment on because his relationship with him was newer than everyone else’s. It may have just been that he didn’t get to experience being Hyde’s friend before and now he actually knew him.

Hyde was quieter than he had imagined him to be. He was a pretty stoic person, which was different from the Hyde Buddy had seen up until the summer that had just past. Hyde joked a lot and was always laughing with his friends but now he was a lot calmer. He had to assume that change may have happened because of his mom leaving town without him.

Buddy had mostly seen the jerk side of him━the one that argued with teachers and fought with meathead jocks and laughed at the expense of others━before, so he hadn’t expected the more understanding and protective side of the slightly older boy.

“Check it out, there’s something written in tiny letters on the bottom of the thermos.”

“Ow!”

Buddy looked up and saw Kelso holding his nose and the thermos in his hand. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Hyde had smacked the metal thermos into Kelso’s face.

So the guy would still pull pranks on his friends, but something that Hyde was never an asshole about was Jackie and Donna’s parent problems or his sexuality. He still made fun of him and Eric whenever they displayed more sensitivity than he found acceptable but he never made it a point to allude to Buddy being gay. Hyde probably looked out for him the most when it came to it excluding Jackie.

That was another friendship that Buddy hadn’t expected. He knew about Jackie’s existence because they were both rich kids and because their fathers were friends. Because she was a grade younger and had gone to private school during middle school, he had mostly known her through stories from Jack Burkhart that were pretty lacking in personality and from seeing her in passing whenever they had to attend one of their parents’ dinner or brunch events.

Buddy remembered younger Jackie from their primary school days as a miniature of her mother. Pam had dressed her up and styled her hair, always patting Jackie’s curls in the same manner she fidgeted with the diamond tennis bracelet on her wrist. Buddy sometimes wondered if Pam Burkhart would have loved Jackie a lot less if Jackie hadn’t ended up being beautiful.

She had been a sweet and cute kid despite her loudness and smug attitude, but there was a yearning in her eyes Buddy hadn’t recognized until recently. Jackie was a lot more sassy now and sheltered her compassion and sweetness behind biting words, but that yearning never disappeared.

Despite her age, Jackie sometimes felt more like an older sister than a younger one. She could be bossy to the point of overbearing, but Buddy had never felt more loved by another human being before. It was sad that he couldn’t say the same about his parents. They were there for him a hell of a lot more than Jackie’s parents were there for her, but he knew their love was conditional and based on him doing what they wanted versus Jackie and their friends taking him as he was.

Even fucking Kelso was accepting of his sexuality just as long as Buddy didn’t come on to him. God, he was such an idiot.

“Did you guys save me some?” Eric sat down on Buddy’s other side on the bench and took the offered thermos and cup from Hyde. Eric took a sip and smacked his lips. “Anyone else still weirded out that Fez has had a girlfriend for over a week now?”

The four of them turned their attention to the rink where Fez held onto the barrier and Patty trailed next to him.

“Still don’t see what’s so great about Patty.” Buddy found her more sanctimonious than Donna and he only really tolerated it from Big Red.

“Well, that’s because you don’t like girls,” Kelso stated it as if it was obvious, but gratefully had lowered his voice so only they could hear him. “She’s a pretty good looking girl.”

“It’s not like I can’t tell when someone is attractive just because I’m not attracted to them sexually, dumbass,” Buddy muttered, taking another large gulp of the spiked cocoa and refilling his cup. “Like, I get it with Donna. She’s cute and when she smiles she kind of glows and well her curves are obviously there.”

“She does kind of glow,” Eric sighed, staring after his girlfriend with a lovestruck expression. Buddy forgot how low Eric’s alcohol tolerance was.

“And then Jackie is, well, pretty fucking obvious. It’s in your face how beautiful she is. You would have to be blind not to see it and if you were blind she would tell you about it anyway.”

Hyde snorted and snatched the thermos back from him, draining the last of its contents.

“Yeah, she’s got a sweet little bod too. Ow!” Kelso rubbed his shoulder and pouted. “Damn, Hyde! What was that for?”

“And it’s not like looks are everything.” Buddy rolled his eyes when Kelso opened his mouth and cut him off before he could say anything. “So much of what Patty says just sounds phony.” Buddy started waving his hands about and in a mocking tone said, “ _ ‘Who do teachers think they are, to teach us about history or math?’ _ Our fucking teachers is what they are. How does that even make sense? History I kind of get ‘cause we are American-centric and biased, but math is a universal language.”

“Yeah, I’m cutting you off,” Hyde informed him, opening up a second thermos and pouring Kelso a serving.

“Hey.” Jackie tiptoed her way over to them and grabbed the thermos from Hyde’s hands. “Aren't you guys going to skate?”

“Uh,” Hyde scratched his cheek with his pinky, “no.”

“I’ll skate with you Jackie,” Kelso offered, standing up and winking flirtatiously at her.

“As if,” Jackie scoffed, thrusting the thermos into his hands. “Come on, Steven. Buddy. You two haven’t gone on the ice  _ once _ since we got here.”

Hyde groaned, stretching out his legs. “I don’t really feel like skating.”

“Pwease.” Jackie pouted at Hyde, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“Fine.”

_ What the hell?  _ Buddy watched as Hyde stood up and followed behind her, making sure to walk slow on the blades of his rented skates.  _ How does she do that? _

“Let’s go, Buddy!” Jackie ordered him to follow after her. Now that Hyde was going to skate he was left with Kelso and Eric for company and he didn’t really care to sit with them and continue drinking.

“Ask me nicer, Princess,” he hissed at her. Jackie turned back and raised a brow at him, a hand on her hip. “Yeah, sorry. I’m kind of buzzed.”

Buddy slid onto the ice gracefully and sped away, not wanting to be the first thing Hyde grabbed onto if he started to feel wobbly on his skates. He wasn’t able to perform all of the tricks that Jackie could, but he didn’t have to worry about skating too fast and being unable to stop. He completed a lap and circled back to Jackie and Hyde.

Jackie was skating backwards and holding Hyde’s hand, guiding his footwork.

“You’re a natural,” Buddy praised him, circling around the couple. He had expected Hyde to have fallen on his face by now.

“Yeah, he’s pretty good at everything.”

“Oh?” Buddy chuckled and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “ _ Everything _ , huh?”

Buddy and Hyde shared a laugh at the way Jackie’s face reddened. She slapped Hyde’s chest and then reached for Buddy but he dodged her attack.

Buddy kicked off and weaved between the couples and groups of friends on the ice as she chased after him. The cold air stung his cheeks as he whipped around using his slender frame to his advantage.

“Get back here, Buddy!” Jackie grabbed the back of his coat and held on as Buddy pulled her forward. Using their speed, the two of them created a slingshot and Jackie propelled forward, speeding ahead of him.

Buddy chased after her in a game of tag. She slowed down as they passed Hyde for the third turn. He was skating lazily, watching the two of them with an amused expression on his face.

“Someone should save Fez.” Hyde pointed at the far side of the rink where Fez was still holding on to the barrier. Patty was skating ahead of him, having given up on trying to skate together.

“Not it!” Buddy was taken aback when the both of them called it out, placing their index fingers on their noses.

“As if you guys weren’t expecting me to go over there.” Buddy scowled at them.

“True.” Jackie shrugged, taking Hyde’s hand in hers. “Bye!”

Buddy stared blankly as the both of them skated away. Sighing to himself, he crossed the center of the rink and stopped right next to Fez who had slipped one more time and fell on one of his knees.

“You need to let go of the wall, Fez.”

“I’ll fall!”

“Well, yeah.” Buddy grabbed him by the elbow and helped him up. “You’re not standing properly. Your feet can’t be too close or too far apart and bend your knees, man.”

As soon as Fez let go of the barrier he slipped, his arms flailing forward. Buddy caught him before he could fall, having braced himself for the inevitable.

“Here. I’ll pull you forward. Just fix your stance.”

Fez bent his knees so that it looked like he was squatting over a chair and Buddy took hold of his hands. Just like him, Fez had also been caught in the snowball fight and lost his gloves. His skin was dry from the cold but the weight of his hands was a comforting presence.

“Aiii…” Fez whined as Buddy slowly skated backwards, pulling Fez along with him. Buddy chuckled softly as Fez’s face scrunched up in fear.

“Don’t look at your feet when you skate. You don’t look at your feet when you roller skate, right?”

“Yes. But that is not on ice. There isn’t even a word for ice in my native language.” Fez paused for a moment, looking around them. “And there’s music playing at the roller rink.”

“Then just hum.”

“Kelso said humming was weird and not to do it on my date with Patty.”

Taking a deep breath, Buddy gave Fez a tight lipped smile. “Patty’s not here right now. And I don’t mind.”

Softly, Fez began to sing  _ On The Good Ship _ under his breath. Buddy held back his laughter by biting down on his lower lip. Of all songs, Fez would pick the one about candy.

Buddy didn’t understand what Fez would like about Patty, but he knew why someone would like Fez. He was sweet and funny and there wasn’t a moment with him that wasn’t fun.

“I miss hanging out with you.” Fez started gliding on the ice, matching Buddy’s movements.

“We hang out.”

“Yeah, with everybody else.”

Buddy sighed and picked up the pace. Fez tightened his grip on his hands as Buddy sped up.

Hanging out with Fez wasn’t easy anymore. Just like with Eric, it felt good that he still wanted to be friends with him despite the feelings Buddy had for him. But unlike with Eric, Buddy’s feelings weren’t fading. He needed space to move on or to get over them.

There were other boys. Buddy had held out hope that Fez may return his feelings, but he hadn’t turned down other available options.

Those boys—men—were attractive and some even had touches so divine, but none of them made Buddy miss them the moment they were gone. He missed their warmth and their bodies, but their laughter all blended together until the voices sounded the same and impersonal. He could recall their smiles and soft whispers in dark corners but not the colors of their eyes.

_ “Do you have a favorite eye color?” _ Jackie’s voice played in his head.  _ “Brown is just really warm right? There’s just so much depth to brown eyes.” _

Mirth filled Fez’s chocolate colored eyes as Buddy let go of his hands and he continued to skate just fine. He stumbled but was able to pick himself up and keep from falling.

“See? You’re just fine without me.”

“Hey.” Patty pulled up alongside them, smiling broadly. “You escaped the wall!”

She took Fez’s hand in hers and skated forward, dragging him away from Buddy. Buddy watched as the both of them skated slowly in the same direction as those circling around the rink. Fez said something he couldn’t hear and Patty tossed her head back, laughing.

“See,” he muttered. “Just fine without me.”

Buddy pushed off, skating clockwise against the counterclockwise flow of all of the other skaters. Why not go against the grain? It was how his life was in sleepy, little Point Place.

He knew most of the residents called it a dump because nothing exciting happened in their town. They were all victims of mundane suburbia. Stores closed early—even earlier on Sundays—and unless you were eighteen or older, you were barred from the only establishments that were open at night. Having a license and most importantly a car was the greatest privilege in Point Place because it meant you could get the hell out, even if it was only for a few hours.

Buddy knew what was expected of him. He was supposed to go to a university, Yale because his father was an alumnus, and study law. He would become a lawyer and then come back home where he would be set up with a daughter of one of the LoPPs, who was also a new inductee. He would work at his father’s law firm, start going to church regularly, get married, and have the grandchildren his mother wanted.

And he would be miserable.

Buddy wanted to be on the frontlines, reporting the news, watching history unfold as it happened. He didn’t care where he lived as long as he got to do what he enjoyed and wasn’t trapped in a loveless marriage.

He waved to his classmates that skated by him, cheerfully greeting him as they moved in a steady flow in the opposite direction. He could really use more of Hyde’s spiked cocoa. That or some of his stash. He just wanted to relax and not think about how he needed to start studying for his PSAT and how the guy he liked was having a romantic moment with a girl he found pretentious.

“Stop it! Donna, help!”

And with that Buddy knew he wasn’t going to be having the relaxing night he had planned.

Looking across the rink, he found Hyde and Kelso wrestling on the ice. It didn’t take long for Hyde to get the upper hand and sit down on top of Kelso, who tried to crawl on his stomach away from him. Eric and Donna had skated over and tried to defuse the situation. Well, Donna tried to defuse the situation while Eric tried to calm down Jackie.

“What happened?” Buddy asked as he slid into a stop.

Kelso brushed off Donna’s hands as he finally got upright again and he pointed an accusing finger at Hyde. “How could you dog me?”

_ Oh, no. _ The hurt in Kelso’s expression looked sincere, but Buddy was more concerned by the volume of his voice and the very public place they chose to have their fight.

Point Place was a small town. Everyone mostly knew everyone and even though it wasn’t a new sight to see Hyde in a fight, especially one involving Kelso when he was up to something stupid, it would be of interest to the school populace as to  _ why _ they were fighting.

Especially when she was standing right there, looking panicked.

“Hey, moron.” Donna shoved Kelso back, pushing against his chest. “Maybe take this elsewhere. Somewhere more private.”

“Private would be best,” Buddy agreed, skating over to Jackie and Eric.

“Did all of you know?” Kelso looked at all of them, hurt shooting across his face before shifting into anger. He glared at all of them and then skated his way to the rink’s entrance.

They all followed after him and watched as he ripped his skates off of his feet and changed into his winter boots that were stashed under the bench they had claimed for their stuff earlier. They all scrambled to get their things as Kelso fumed and struggled to put his boots on in his frustration. Buddy looked up at the rink where Patty was trying to help Fez skate to the exit. He was going to have to remind them all not to forget Fez and his girlfriend.

“Kelso, will you calm down so we can talk about it?” Hyde chased after Kelso. Kelso reached the Vista Cruiser and tried to open the locked door repeatedly.

“I don’t wanna talk!” Kelso swung back around, fists clenched. “You’re supposed to be my friend and you dogged me!”

Kelso tossed his skates on the ground and shoved Hyde who took the hit without defending himself. Shaking his head at Hyde’s stupid, unexpected noble nature, Buddy put himself in between the two boys. Eric was likely to get hurt if he tried to get between the larger boys and Buddy didn’t feel comfortable leaving it all up to the girls, especially Jackie. Her presence could potentially agitate Kelso more.

Buddy exchanged a look with Eric and they both sighed. It was getting obnoxious how much Kelso claimed Jackie as his girl considering his behavior. Eric was just finally beginning to tolerate having Jackie around, especially after Buddy had let it slip that Jackie helped him out with Donna without any of the guys knowing about it.

Eric put his hands on Kelso’s shoulders and spoke slowly. “You were just making out with the rink guard girl.”

“So?” Kelso scoffed, brushing Eric’s hands off of him. “What’s that gotta to do with Hyde snaking Jackie from me? He dogged me, Eric.”

Eric’s eyes went wide and he raised his hands up, flailing them around in disbelief. “Kelso. Jackie broke up with you half a year ago. And that’s literally what you said at Prom when you took  _ Pam Macy _ instead of Jackie!”

“What are you trying to say, Eric?”

“Eric. Dude. You have to spell it out for him.” Buddy rolled his eyes and flicked Kelso’s forehead. Kelso covered his forehead with his hands and glared at him. “You don’t have some kind of placeholder on Jackie. She’s not going to be sitting around, waiting for you to be tired of fooling around and want someone more constant to keep you from being lonely.”

“It doesn’t mean  _ Hyde _ should date her!” Kelso shouted, trying to push past him, his anger and focus back on the original target. Buddy could hear Jackie shouting something back, but his attention was on Kelso’s aggression more than her words. “She was mine. She’s supposed to be with me. Friends don’t date—!”

“Are you kidding me?” Jackie pushed her way in front of Buddy and pushed her hands against Kelso’s chest. “I don’t” she smacked him on the chest, “belong to you,” she smacked him again with each word, “you selfish son of a—“

“Okay, Doll.” Hyde pulled her away from Kelso, lifting her up from under her armpits. “You need to stay out of this before you end up killing Kelso.”

“It’s not like calling shotgun, Kelso.” Donna slugged him on his arm and pushed him away from Jackie and Hyde. “She’s not property to claim. Jackie is a human being with feelings and thoughts.”

“That-that has nothing to do with anything. Who cares about that?” Kelso raised his arms up in defense as Donna kept smacking him and shoving him as they circled the Cruiser. “There’s a code, Donna!”

“Oh, boy…” Buddy exhaled the words. He turned to Eric who shrugged at him.

“He’s not wrong, but…” Eric winced when they heard a loud slap. Donna was on the other side of the Cruiser, Hyde lifting her up with his arms around her waist and dragging her away as she flailed around kicking. Eric unlocked the Vista Cruiser and Hyde settled her into the front seat.

“Why is Donna beating up Kelso?” Fez had finally escaped the ice rink and got his boots back on.

“Because he’s being a tool,” Buddy answered. He brought Fez up to speed on what he knew about what had happened.

Fez gasped. “Hyde and Jackie are dating?”

“How did you not know?” Buddy gaped at him. Was Fez really that oblivious? “She literally ran to him and hugged him earlier in the basement.”

“She always does that! She’s upset, she goes to Hyde!” Fez exclaimed, gripping his hair. “I’m always the last to know everything.”

“Well, now you know.” Buddy noticed Hyde and Jackie missing and craned his neck around to find them.

He could make out their voices by the El Camino as Jackie argued with Hyde while he attempted to usher her into the cab of his truck. Hyde was finally able to get Jackie inside and have her start the Camino before he marched back to the rest of them.

“How did he figure it out?” Buddy asked him as Hyde walked past him. Hyde brushed past him straight to Kelso.

“Look, Kelso,” Hyde spoke softly, “I’m sorry. I’m really,  _ really _ , sorry.”

Kelso shook his head, his eyes watering. “Why Jackie?”

“I didn’t plan on it being, Jackie. Can we just settle this?”

“No. I don’t wanna settle shit.” Kelso’s brows furrowed into a hateful glare.

“Come on, Kelso.” Eric moved to stand between them. “You guys have been friends for years and at the rate you’ve been going, it would be a little hard to date someone you haven’t been with.”

Kelso stared at him blankly for a minute before nodding his head in agreement. “That’s true. But, man, who chooses a chick over a friend?”

“You?” Eric spazzed, gesturing to Kelso erratically with his hands. “You made me walk home in the middle of a snow storm just so you could make out with Pam Macy for an extra ten minutes.”

“But I didn’t steal Pam Macy from you!”

“Kelso.” Eric sighed and ran a hand down his face, pulling on his lower lip as he dragged his fingers down. “You cheated on Jackie with my sister. You like hooking up with other girls and you have been. For months. Literal months. Can you just let the girl move on even if it’s in an unholy, abomination of a union?”

“Forman,” Hyde snapped at him.

“Hey.” Eric held up a finger in Hyde’s direction. “She’s the devil and you’re kind of evil and that may make sense, but roller disco and Zeppelin just don’t blend. Or could they?” Eric looked up thoughtfully. “No, nope. That was horrifying.”

“Now is not the time, Eric.” Buddy pinched the bridge of his nose. The whole thing was dragging on more than it needed to be. Jackie and Kelso only dated for a majority of a single school year and it wasn’t the best.

Jackie had been a control freak that bossed the older boy around and made him do what she wanted him to do. It was a normal occurrence for her to be shrill and shouting his name or freezing him out when he disappointed her. Kelso wasn’t any better, always complaining about his girlfriend and claiming he would be breaking up with her and instead just cheated on her with easier girls. And that was the worst of his offenses but not the only ones.

Buddy had excused Jackie’s behavior as her being a first time girlfriend wanting her dream boyfriend and choosing the wrong schmuck for the job. She was young and wanted a sweet, handsome, and dreamy boyfriend, but that didn’t mean Kelso had to be that guy nor did he have to put up with her demands and her shouting. Jackie didn’t deserve to be disrespected and have her heart crushed when the boy she cared about and thought she loved betrayed her and cheated on her with any attractive, more experienced girl.

He knew Kelso could be sweet, like a puppy that didn’t know any better, but there was none of that sweet Kelso tonight.

“Can we all just forget about what just happened and remember that we’re best friends?” Eric pleaded with Kelso.

Kelso blinked back tears as he glared at Eric, his jaw clenched. He looked at everyone and then beyond them to the El Camino. His eyes finally settled on Hyde and he shook his head. Kelso grabbed his discarded skates and without looking back at any of them he took off down towards Main Street.

“We should, uh,” Eric gestured weakly to his car, “make sure he gets home.”

“I’ll give you a ride home, Buddy,” Hyde offered, pointing at his truck and then dropping his hand in defeat. He looked exhausted. “You live on Jackie’s block, it only makes sense.”

Buddy was glad he hadn’t driven his car to the Formans’ house. He wasn’t warming up to the idea of being in any confined space with Fez and Patty. The both of them were constantly making out and acting cutesy. He should have been happy for Fez. It was his first girlfriend, but pretending was all Buddy could do.

He didn’t even want to wonder if it would be the same with any girl. It was easy to not like him dating Patty, because he wasn’t too fond of her even if she weren’t dating Fez.

Right? Yeah, right…

Buddy said goodnight to everyone. He leaned over and pressed his hand against the passenger side window and tried to get Donna’s attention. Her tongue was pressed to the inside of her cheek and she was staring straight ahead with her arms crossed in front of her chest. He was surprised she hadn’t jumped out of the car after Hyde had her sit down. Buddy was sure Donna was going to maim Kelso tonight.

Climbing into the El Camino, Buddy sighed, grateful for the little bit of heat already circulating in the cab. He rubbed his palms together and held them up near the vent.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked Hyde when he slid into his truck and closed his door.

“I’m fine.”

Hyde pulled away from the curb and turned down the street. They drove in silence, even as they passed by Kelso who made it a point to ignore them as he continued walking.

The evening had started off so differently than it had ended. Kelso, who had made it a point to flash them his rear end only a couple of hours ago, was now giving them the cold shoulder. Buddy hated Kelso’s sense of entitlement and his womanizing ways, but he didn’t want him to stop talking to the friends he had for over a decade.

He had no idea what was going to happen from now on, but he hoped it didn’t ruin things for Jackie.

Tired of the silence in the car, Buddy awkwardly spoke up when they reached a light. “Well, that could have gone better.”

In sync, moving as if they had done it for years, Jackie and Hyde turned to him with matching expressions of judgement on their faces.

_ Freaky... _

* * *

Jackie’s parents were home so Hyde parked his car around the corner like he usually did when he would sneak in and out of the Burkharts’ estate. The both of them removed their shoes before entering the foyer. Jackie left hers and her skates at the entrance like she always did and Hyde carried his in hand, using his coat to keep them from dripping on the floor.

Silently, they tiptoed past the grand sitting room and we’re almost to the stairs when a groggy voice spoke up from the sitting room.

“Jackie? Darling?” Pamela Burkhart slurred. “Is that you, sweetheart?”

Jackie’s shoulders slumped. She put her finger to her lips and then gave him an apologetic look. She gestured for him to stay where he was and then walked back into the sitting room.

Hyde ignored her request and looked into the room from around the corner. The sitting room was still bigger than the house he had rented with Edna and full of luxury items like the baby grand piano and bourbon filled crystal decanters. All things that decorated the plush life Jackie had been living.

The last time he had been in the room, there was a lot less furnishing.

Jackie grabbed an afghan that had been tossed over one of the couches and draped it over her mother who was lying on the couch, her baby blue satin robe askew and revealing her matching satin nightgown that fell to her knees.

“Where were you?” Pam asked Jackie in a whimper.

“I went ice skating with my friends, mother,” Jackie explained, kneeling on the ground and tucking the throw around Pam.

“Your father called while you were gone,” she murmured, curling into a ball. “He had to go out of town. Some last minute thing. He couldn’t wait for you to come home, he said.” Pam hiccuped and curled tighter. “I told Jack that he needed to get you some—something when he returns. Something beautiful. A father is supposed to—supposed to make sure he sees his little girl before he takes off.”

“I’m sure he will.” Jackie stroked her mother’s hair away from her face. “And he’ll remember to get you something too, mom.”

“Yeah?” Pam asked weakly. “He will?”

“Yeah,” Jackie’s voice was soft but still carried a cheerful tone. She pressed a kiss to her mother's temple and stood up. “Goodnight, mom.”

Hyde turned back out of the doorway and leaned against the wall. This wasn’t the first time he had witnessed something like that between the two, but it was the first in this timeline.

Pam was a different person when she was drunk at home than when she was surrounded by people. She was needier and all she wanted was someone that loved her and the only person around would always be Jackie. Pam didn’t drink in excess when her husband was present, but he wasn’t around enough and she drank the loneliness away. Jackie was an afterthought and Jackie was left to whatever scraps of affection an inebriated Pam had for her.

It didn’t escape Hyde that Jackie shared the same experiences he did. An absent father and a mother that turned to the bottle and other men to bandage the wounds. At least his parents divorced and he was able to escape to the Formans even before Edna took off. Jackie was still caught between two parents insisting on playing their parts.

And play them well they did.

Red was the first to find a crack in Jackie’s glass house. It wasn’t intentional, but he had let it slip about Jack always being busy. It had made sense because he was a lawyer and a city councilman. Jack Burkhart was rich and popular enough, especially with the picture his family painted.

Jackie never let anyone see how it bothered her. She was raised so that it was normal that her father was always busy and that it was all so she could live the wonderful life she had. She got all of the pretty clothes she loved and any toy she asked for, so why should she complain? It was better to think she was better than everyone for all of the things her father could buy her. It was easier to think that she didn’t need anything else from him.

Kelso had been the second clue to the reality of Jackie’s life. The moron was always bragging about how easy it was to spend the night until Jackie had cut him off from staying over. Everyone hated his Jackie talk especially because most of the time he was either complaining or lying about what Jackie let him do. While the two of them dated, Kelso was oblivious to what really was going on with Jackie’s parents and it was probably for the best.

Jackie brushed by him, looking at him for only a second and then quickly averted her gaze. She hooked a finger and beckoned him to follow her up the stairs.

He knew she wouldn’t want to talk about what had just happened. She hadn’t back in his 1977 when they were hooking up, but eventually they had to talk about it. In this version of 1977, Hyde was already privy to her secrets. Somehow he had missed that he and Jackie were closer friends before they started dating which made it so that she opened up and was real with him a lot sooner.

As soon as they entered her room, Jackie took his wet boots and placed them in her en suite.

“I won’t take long,” Jackie told him, taking her pajamas into the bathroom.

Hyde took a seat at the edge of her bed and looked around. It looked almost exactly as it did the last time he had been in Jackie’s room in 1978. He had been in plenty of girly rooms, but Jackie’s took the prize in being the most dedicated to pink. She covered the walls with posters and magazine clippings and furniture blocked out the walls, but the color still peeked out.

She had glittery decor and useless baubles scattered in different corners of her room. It was all sparkly things that made her feel like her life was just as shiny as those items. She had a mountain of stuffed animals to keep her company and in boxes on her bookshelf, Hyde knew she had saved invitations and holiday cards and photos taken at events. The more people that liked her, the more popular she was, the easier it was to shield herself with shallow adoration and not worry about the two people that were supposed to love her the most.

Jackie came back out of her bathroom dressed in her gingham cotton pajama set. She went straight to her desk and snipped her paper access bracelet from the skating rink and laid it down on her desk. The corner of Hyde’s lips twitched upwards at the sight. She always saved everything. Everything was a memory and despite how things ended at the skating rink, it was a memory of them.

She shuffled over to her bed and on her knees, straddled Hyde’s lap. Instinctively, Hyde grasped her hips in his hands. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he breathed against her mouth as she pressed a kiss to his lips.

“So that was bad.” Jackie sighed and slipped Hyde’s sunglasses off of his face. “With Michael I mean. I was having a pretty good time tonight before all of that.”

Kelso wasn’t what he wanted to discuss with Jackie on his lap. Not with the way she rocked her hips, dipping them and pulling back up just to press down harder in alternating movements.

“How good of a time?” He asked, pressing a kiss to her throat. Closing his eyes, Hyde slid his hands up Jackie’s pajama top and felt her warm, soft skin and smelled the honey, apricots, and baby powder mixture that was her nightwear perfume.

God. Jackie was the kind of girl that had different perfume for different seasons and times of the day and he wasn’t supposed to be into anyone that meticulous about the strangest things but all Hyde wanted was her right where she was, riding his lap and panting.

“It could be better,” she baited him, voice husky.

With his eyes closed, Jackie was the soft sighs, perfect skin, and sweet scent that was the Jackie he left behind in 1979. She tasted like that sweet cherry lip gloss 1979 Jackie had switched to using just for him.

But with his eyes opened, Jackie’s cheekbones weren’t as sharp, her face not as angular and she didn’t have the bangs that framed her face for the more mature look 1979 Jackie had wanted. Her cheeks were pink from being scrubbed clean of her makeup and it somehow made them look a little plumper.

There had to be something wrong about being with Jackie like this. He was physically seventeen, but mentally he was reaching near twenty years old. Hyde was trying to take things slow, slower than the pace they had gone in his original timeline. 1979 Jackie had made Kelso wait a couple of months to properly fool around and eight months before they had sex for the first time. 1979 Jackie had settled into Hyde’s bed barely six weeks after they kissed that first summer of theirs.

He thought that with the many changes to the timeline, that he would have to average it out and he would have time before Jackie was ready to take things further.

“Do you want to touch me more, Steven?” Jackie whispered, taking his hands in hers and flattening them against her taut stomach. She slid them up her torso until they reached the lower swell of her pert breasts. “I want you to touch me more.”

This is where the government simulation mindfuck took over. A sixteen year old Jackie with Kelso being her only sexual experience, was slightly clumsy and mostly used well practiced flirty looks in her seduction. She never had to do much because Kelso had always been the one chasing after her, begging to be allowed to touch her. And as much as her pouty looks worked on Hyde, she had much to learn about what got him really going, not just revving up his engine.

Jackie was a talker and Hyde had expected it while screwing, had heard it when she was with Kelso the one time—the first and last time despite Kelso’s claims of it having been more—Jackie had let Kelso convince her that it was okay for them to have sex on the basement couch. As much as she needed to kink it up with Kelso, she had never wanted him or one of their friends to actually witness it or hear it. He had heard her attempts to guide Kelso over his moronic friend’s grunts before he shut them out with a Judas Priest record and Hyde would have rather cut off his big toes than end up being put in the same league as Kelso in Jackie’s eyes and have her order him around during sex.

But when they finally got down and dirty, Jackie hadn’t spoken much unprompted other than calls of his name. For someone that was loud in every other aspect of her life, he had expected her to be loud when properly fucking as well.

Jackie’s cries of pleasure were as soft as her hair and her skin. She made the cutest sounds, but Hyde was never going to cop to that description. When she came, her noises were guttural, caught in her throat and just for him. It was a strangely new phenomenon for him that was much more appealing than anything else.

She became more vocal as time went by, more confident to let him know what she wanted, but it had taken a bit for her to discover what she actually liked as she experimented with things that had interested her but had never done. Hyde had been more than glad to help out with that during their first summer.

Hyde had expected to have to repeat everything all over again, but Jackie seemed more and more like eighteen year old Jackie.

“I’m doing all of the work here, Steven,” Jackie snapped at him, dropping his hands. She shot him a glare as she stilled in his lap, but it softened the longer she looked him in the eye and she cupped his face in her hands. “Are you okay? We don’t have to fool around if you don’t want to.”

“That’s not it.” She looked like early 1977 Jackie, but moved like 1979 Jackie and it was starting to give him whiplash. “This ain’t too fast for you?”

Jackie gave him a slight frown and shook her head. “Not at all.” She looped her arms around his neck and played with the curls at the base. She laid her forehead against his and murmured, barely brushing her lips to his when she spoke. “What? Do  _ you _ think it’s too fast?”

“Was just wondering how many bases you were trying to round tonight.”

When they were just a fling, this was around the time they had stalled before sliding into home. It had been a long time for  _ him _ to wait, but for Jackie it had been too soon in comparison to her dating timeline. The wait had been worth it and he didn’t mind waiting again, but Hyde was her boyfriend—her man—not just her fling so he wasn’t sure if that changed things up or not.

“I’m good for a couple, if you like.” Jackie cupped his face in her hands and sank her tongue into his mouth. Her fingers curled into his hair as he got to work on the buttons of her cotton pajama top.

Her skin was warm. Jackie was always warmer towards her core, the heat running out as it reached her digits. Her fingertips were cold as they traced delicate patterns down the sides of his face, but her touch was softer than that of anyone who had ever touched him besides the Jackie he had left behind in 1979. The way she caressed him, it made him feel like she was trying to tell him that he was the only thing in the world that mattered.

It was a beautiful lie and for as long as Jackie gave him the privilege of looking at her, touching her—be it two minutes or hours—it was easy to believe it.

There were no repeats of how getting to second with Jackie Burkhart was like back in his original 1977. She didn’t stutter in her movements, no hesitation as Hyde revealed her skin. Back in his own timeline Jackie had been an odd mixture of confidence and insecurity the first time she had decided to go topless just for him. She knew she was beautiful, but she was also unsure as she knew she was much more petite and smaller in areas than other girls.

This Jackie didn’t need any reassurance that she had pretty, little tits and that Hyde’s only issue was trying to figure out where he wanted to put his mouth first. This Jackie wasn’t thinking about the dirty magazines the guys left lying around the basement that didn’t have girls with her physique or her mother who flaunted her perfect figure.

She moved against him like it wasn’t the first time she was bare before him with him touching her. Like she wasn’t a different Jackie than the one he had already grown with, been loved by, and had been left behind in 1979.

Hyde chuckled at Jackie’s delighted hums as he laid her down on her bed. It was always good to know that he affected her just as much as she affected him.

With his eyes closed and Jackie smelling like her sweet name brand perfume, it was easy to pretend they were in his own time and not back in the past. Jackie’s kisses were the perfect balance of sweet and insistent. Hyde had no trouble melting into her, letting her pull the layers of shirts he was wearing over his head so that she could press their skin together.

There was a nice buzz running along his brain and down his spine, but a tugging at his waist had him drawing away, his mouth going dry at the small hands unbuckling his belt.

“Jackie?” He looked down at her with bemusement as she tossed his belt to the side and he heard it clink when it hit the ground.

“It’s going to dig into me,” Jackie offered as an explanation, maneuvering her legs so that she had her knees pressed to his hips. Using the muscles of her thighs, Jackie pulled him into the cradle of her legs so that he was resting his body against hers.

Jackie rolled her hips against him, lining herself up perfectly to move against his hardened length. Her moans vibrated in his mouth as they rocked their bodies together.

Of all the different scenarios he had run through in his head about how his night would end, dry fucking hadn’t occurred in any of them. And each time her voice hitched on his name as he pushed her deeper into her mattress, all he wanted was for it to be like that, just him and his chick, but it was too soon and it left a sour taste in his mouth that he was content with an aspect of his life after fighting with Kelso and it not being resolved in any way.

Looking down at Jackie, her dark eyes hooded and swollen lips parted slightly with her pajama top open and her bottoms sliding down her hips, Hyde huffed in frustration and rolled off of her.

It would have been better if he really didn’t have a conscience like he used to claim he didn’t.

Rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands, Hyde sat up. “It’s getting late.”

“Yeah,” Jackie breathed out and turned on her side. “It is.”

Hyde helped her button up her top and grabbed his discarded articles of clothing from the floor. If he stayed any longer it would make it that much harder to leave.

“Are you going to be alright?” He asked, slipping his coat back on. It was another hand me down from James Kelso and it was his nicest black coat. He could feel that he was stretching it out at the shoulders already.

Jackie looked up from where she was pulling back her covers and removing the extra pillows from her bed. “About what?”

“I don’t know. Kelso? Your mom? Take your pick.”

Sighing, Jackie moved from her bed and wrapped her arms around his waist. “My mom? Such a non-issue. It’s not new, I can handle it.”

That didn’t make Hyde feel any better. He didn’t like when eighteen year old Jackie moved back in with her mother, how was he supposed to let sixteen year old Jackie continue to take care of her floozy mother.

“Jackie.”

“You already know what it’s like and why I don’t want to talk about it.”

Hyde knew too well. He never made excuses for Edna, but he was the only one allowed to talk shit about his mother. He lived it, he experienced it, only he knew.

And then there was Jackie.

No one could touch the subject of Pam Burkhart. Jackie could say whatever she wanted about her mother or her father, but she did it behind closed doors and only to whoever she felt safe with: him. Hyde could respect that. He never discussed—truly discussed—his parents to anyone but Forman and Red on occasion. Donna was only privy to the parts of his shitty life that could relate to hers and he was fine with that. Fez and Kelso were open to what they witnessed and Kelso was too naive and Fez too new for them to get the full picture.

The both of them━Jackie and him━were too prideful to let anyone know about the things that hurt and to ask for help. It was one of the difficult things about dating for them in the beginning and a hurdle he was going to have to jump all over again. It was going to take work to get back to how they were before the end, when neither of them had to actually use words for the other to know what was going on.

“And Kelso?”

Jackie nodded her head and offered him a crooked grin. “More difficult.” She kissed him briefly. “But I don’t regret anything.”

“Not a thing?” Hyde murmured, kissing her back.

“Nope,” Jackie whispered, shaking her head, the smile still on her face. “I like you too much to regret anything.”

It was a major step down from being told that she loved him, but it was still too soon for any proclamations from Jackie. Hyde had been denying love for so long and even after their break up that he hadn’t been expecting his stomach to ache from the downgrade in verbal affection.

“And you?” Jackie asked him, pinching at the material of his shirt. “Any regrets about being my boyfriend?”

“Oh, plenty,” he teased her, earning him a playful slap to his chest. “No, seriously, I have none. Being your boyfriend is cool with me.”

She beamed up at him in that typical Jackie way, as if just a minute ago she wasn’t almost topless and using his erection to get herself off. Hyde had almost forgotten how easy it was to make her happy. She asked for a mile and settled for an inch. Jackie had smiled just as wide as when he first slipped up and called her his girlfriend in his true 1977 like it was some grand prize.

Like  _ he _ was some grand prize.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” He asked, kissing her on her cheek goodnight.

“I’ll call you if I can’t.” Jackie’s hands moved to Hyde’s and she slipped her fingers into the sleeves of his coat. She ran her finger pads against the soft skin of his inner wrist.

Looked like early 1977 Jackie, but moved like 1979 Jackie.

Sneaking out of the Burkhart house was easy considering he had knowledge from the future of where all of the creaks in the floorboards were. The only roadblock was making sure Pam didn’t notice him moving around in the dark. He usually found her stumbling back to her own bedroom, too drunk to notice that he was there.

The drive back to the Formans’ from the Burkharts’ mansion always felt longer at night. A small town like Point Place was always quieter when the stores closed and the roads were empty of travelers. Hyde sang under his breath to pass the time. He could have turned up the radio, but it didn’t help when he had songs stuck in his head that hadn’t been released yet.

The quiet of Point Place at night with just the hum of his Camino was the liminal space he needed where he didn’t need to act like everything was as copacetic as he kept telling himself it was.

The lights were off when he approached the Forman house, not even the porch lights were on. Forman must have covered for him with Red and Kitty. He parked his truck on the street, not wanting to have to wake up to move the El Camino when they went to church.

Making his way down the steps to the basement, he saw the light on and knew someone had to be waiting for him to come home. Opening the door he found Forman sitting on the couch, watching a rerun of a Twilight Zone episode.

“You’re back late,” Forman commented, crossing his arms in front of his chest with mock authority. “Busy rounding some bases? Have fun?”

“Well, it is the great American pastime.”

“Oh, God, I was joking.” Forman shivered in disgust. “I don’t wanna know about you and Jackie.”

“Then don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.” Hyde hung up his coat over the shower curtain’s rod and slumped onto the couch.

“Ew! She  _ hoovered _ you, man.”

Forman gagged and pointed to the left side of his neck. Hyde fingered the spot he vaguely recalled Jackie focusing so much attention on and felt a light throb when he pressed down on the area. Damn. He had been so caught up in the way she grinded her hips against his that he hadn’t noticed that she had left a hickey.

“So…”

Hyde groaned, knowing exactly what was on Forman’s mind. “Do we really have to talk about it right now?”

“Hyde.” Forman stood up and turned the television off. “We kind of do. Kelso looked crushed, man. And no, I’m not saying he was right about the whole you snaking Jackie from him thing ‘cause he screwed himself over about that months ago. He’s our best friend. We gotta do something about it.”

“He needs to get over it.”

“You know what he’s going to say right?”

“What?”

“We’ve been friends with him for over ten years and we’ve only known Jackie for, like, two.” Forman bit his lower lip and puffed up his cheeks. He exhaled slowly and sat back down on the couch. “I don’t even think it’s about being with her. This is betrayal to him. Remember how peeved he was when we let Jackie keep coming round when they broke up?”

That had been an annoying couple of weeks. He had pulled more pranks that week than ever and did anything he could to try and annoy Jackie and Buddy out of the basement.

“We were supposed to choose him, not Jackie. And you my friend, did more than just choose Jackie.”

“Whatever.” Hyde rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I’m pretty sure his entitled ass is still hung up on her.”

“First Kelso, then Fez, and now you.” Forman shook his head. “She’s a demon, I’m telling you.”

“Shut up, Forman.”

Forman laughed as Hyde smacked him with the green throw pillow.

Hyde didn’t expect Kelso to behave the same way he had at the end of the summer of 1977. He was expecting school to be the same after he and Jackie hooked up, but at least this time she had Donna still at Point Place High and also Buddy.

“I thought Donna was going to kill Kelso.” Forman quirked his head thoughtfully. “It was kind of hot.”

Hyde frowned, shooting him a dirty look. He stood up, wanting to distance himself from Forman as soon as possible. “Alright, I’m going to bed.”

He might not be ready for the new changes, but at least Eric Forman never changed.

Some things never changed.

* * *

Jackie was subject to derogatory comments from tenth grade boys and come ons from seniors that actually thought they had a chance.

Some of her upperclassmen on the cheer squad kept speaking to her in condescending tones about damage control and Leslie...Leslie was spacey as always but still the person she hadn’t expected to sit with her first whenever she saw Jackie alone for more than a minute.

_ “Sisterhood, girl,” _ had been her only explanation, which was the same thing she had said the first week of school in the 1977 that Jackie had already experienced.

It had been easier when she was Head Cheerleader and untouchable. The squad had rallied behind her in defense of their youngest captain in Point Place High history—the one voted by the largest margin as well. Right now she was just the talented sophomore on the varsity squad.

Valerie was at least standing with her. She still expected Jackie to take over the squad when she graduated. Valerie didn’t stop from lecturing her about handling her business better and about how just one of them could ruin the whole squad’s reputation, but she wasn’t the person annoying Jackie the most.

“She thinks she’s better than us just ‘cause she keeps it all under wraps who she screws,” Leslie scoffed, taking her sandwich apart and folding it so that it only had one piece of bread.

Leslie smiled and waved as Kat walked past the table and headed to sit with her country club friends instead of with her fellow cheerleaders. The smile slid off her face into a sneer as soon as Kat’s back was turned.

Leslie Cannon had a very well known “love them and leave them” policy. She dated whoever she deemed worthy, only letting them get as far as she liked if they treated her the way she desired them to. It was why she was also known for being a huge tease, but she made it work.

Kat Peterson had called her out for it during a practice when Jackie was a freshman and Leslie and her had been frenemies ever since.

“So you like being with El Camino?” Leslie asked munching on a celery stick.

“His name’s Steven Hyde, Leslie.” Jackie rolled her eyes and stabbed lightly at her salad with her fork.

“ _ Right _ .” Leslie grinned slyly at her. “He’s cute. And so bad. You think he’d let me—“

“Not even if you actually had your license.” Jackie tossed her head back and laughed. She had asked the same question the day Buddy had sat with them at lunch months ago.

Leslie was always a riot and Jackie had really missed her when she had graduated and went off to a school in California. When Jackie was a senior, all of the girls she actually liked from the cheerleading team had graduated and she was left with the girls that shared the same peer group she did, but that was all she could say about them.

“Are you bitches laughing at me?” Shauna Parker, another junior and another one of Jackie’s squad mates that had gone away to college in another state, sat down across from them, shaking her strawberry blonde hair and scooping it into a ponytail.

“Oh, please do share whatever it is we could be making fun of you for,” Leslie propped her chin on top of her hands and rest her elbows on the table top.

“As if.” Shauna wrinkled her nose in disgust. She stole Jackie’s clementine and shoved over her paper boat of tater tots, winking at her. Jackie was about to switch them back when Shauna narrowed her eyes at her and batted her hand away. “Eat the carbs, Jackie. You can afford to eat them you skinny witch.”

Jackie didn’t know how long she had with them, but they were the only two that she truly missed from pep squad. They were the only two she actually liked to hang out with at parties the cheer squad had to attend.

“Hello, letter jackets.” Buddy slid into the seat on the other side of Jackie.

“Sorry, Trans Am.” Leslie jutted out her lip in a pout. “Maybe if you were an athlete like us, you too could wear a cute matching jacket.”

Buddy gave her a weird puzzled look but took out his sack lunch and his journal. “How has your day been, Jackie?”

“Fine.” Jackie went back to stabbing her salad. When she heard no one talking she lifted her head up and caught the three of them staring at her. “I’m  _ fine _ .”

Ignoring the leers from some of the undesirable members of the male student body, Jackie scanned the cafeteria. Steven and the others had lunch during the same period, but she didn’t sit with them usually so it wasn’t strange for her not to be with them. It was strange for Michael to be missing though.

Michael had ended up sitting with the junior varsity wrestling team. Despite being on the team, he and Donna never sat with their team members. After their group outing over the weekend, Michael had shunned everyone except for Fez who was acting as a go between and passing along messages from him. Most of them were extremely immature and insulting.

It was a change from what had happened in the original 1977. Back then, Michael had discovered what had happened over the summer and he and Steven had called a truce before school had started. She had been able to talk to Michael as well, but this time around they weren’t able to discuss anything.

“I still think everyone’s making a big deal about it.” Leslie sighed and pushed her tray away. “So what if you’re dating a guy that’s friends with the guy you used to date? They expect  _ us _ to be cycled through sports teams and those guys tend to be close too. Just look at Destroy and Give Back. They don’t go anywhere without each other.”

It wasn’t fair. No one called out Steven for dating his friend’s ex or about how Michael had dated sisters at the same time, but they all talked about how she was now with her ex’s best friend. Donna had said something about double standards that Jackie had barely listened to. Jackie hadn’t minded the explanation until Donna had started rambling on about it and going on one of her feminist sermons.

Jackie loved the girl, but she forgot how involved Donna had been, reading all of the books Midge brought home, and centering so much of her life around feminism that it got to be all that she talked about at times when she was .

“I’m just glad the winter sports season is almost over.” Jackie shoved a bite of salad into her mouth, done with the conversation. She would be glad when she no longer had to balance her time with school, finding a new job, and cheer and having to avoid Michael at wrestling meets Point Place High hosted.

“Maybe you can help out with the style section of the paper when it’s over,” Buddy suggested. “It would only be once a month. We were told to try and come up with other forms of entertainment and really it’s high school so why not?”

Jackie bit the inside of her cheek and pondered what Buddy had offered. It sounded very similar to the ideas that she had been going over as she waited to hear back about an available slot at Point Place Public Access back in 1979.

“Yeah, this school could really use my expertise on fashion.” Jackie fluffed her hair and adjusted her beret. Shauna rolled her eyes but smiled at her anyway, shaking her head.

“Yeah, some people really do.”

Buddy snickered when Leslie pointed at Kat’s Rich Bitch clique and gagged. Buddy wasn’t a fan of those in his own social circle but Kat had left a bad impression on him over things she had said about Shelly before Jackie had even entered high school.

He had told her about his soft spot for Shelly Cooper. Jackie didn’t really know the girl other than some rumors, but Buddy had insisted that Shelly was nothing like the gossip train made her out to be.

Shelly had a reputation for being easy and when Jackie joined the varsity squad her freshman year, her upperclassmen had warned her about girls like her and to stay clear of them for fear of what the association could do to her reputation. After that, Jackie only knew her as the silly girl with the bad taste to like Eric.

Buddy had told her about how he had dated Shelly when he was in ninth grade. Shelly was a sweet girl that grew attached easily and fell hard for the boys she liked. Unlike Pam Macy—who didn’t discriminate about who she fooled around with—Shelly genuinely liked the boys that she messed around with. Even if some of them happened to be dorky and taken like Eric. Her only fault was that none of the boys she picked were truly worthy of her affections and abandoned her as soon as they got what they wanted from her.

_ “She called me a freak when I told her we couldn’t be together because I was gay,” _ Buddy had told Jackie, a wry smile twisting at his lips.  _ “I broke her heart, but she never outed me. She never said anything bad about me after that too.” _

Shelly had at one point been Buddy’s best friend, someone who liked that he was nerdy and taught her things in a manner she could understand. She wasn’t the brightest girl and she loved that smart Buddy didn’t treat her like an idiot like so many of their classmates did. Their relationship had disintegrated when Buddy confessed that he couldn’t love her the way she wanted him to and he missed the friend he had lost.

When Jackie was actually sixteen, she had found her friendships in her designated clique severely lacking. It was one of the reasons she had clung so fiercely to Donna. Donna was nothing like the girls in the cheer squad or in the rich kid clique. She made friends with someone because she wanted to and no matter how much Jackie annoyed her, she knew that Donna saw something in her that was worth keeping around.

Leslie didn’t care about who Jackie dated and Shauna only cared if Jackie looked good, thus making her look good in association. They were the most fun of all of her squad mates to gossip with and hang out with at events, but they weren’t people that Jackie would let peek underneath the surface.

She wondered if that’s what it was like for Buddy when he was friends with Shelly, if she was his Donna. She knew he wasn’t satisfied with his peer group and it was why he enjoyed clubs like the school newspaper and yearbook so that he had an excuse to float around and not settle in one space.

The three of them walked with Jackie as far as they could before they were forced to split up. Once her buffer was gone, Jackie could hear the whispers and guffaws from random boys in the hallways. She held her head high and ignored them, refusing to give away any sign that she could hear their comments.

“Michael Kelso must have said something about how Burkhart was in the sack and Hyde decided to take her up for a—“

The words were cut off with the sound of a body slamming into a locker. Jackie didn’t need to turn around to know what had happened. She was currently on the way to her English class and when she was headed there, Steven was on his way to his eleventh grade English class with Mr. Palmer—a teacher Jackie would have the following year—and would be walking down the same hallway.

“Hey,” he greeted her nonchalantly, his shoulder brushing against her own as he fell into step with her. The way he carried himself didn’t give away that anything bothered him. At least not to everyone else.

But this was a version of Steven that was easy for Jackie to read. He kept Eric safe from bullies, didn’t let the football team stuff Fez into closets and lockers, was a safe place for Donna to express her feelings about her parents, and he punched out Chip for her—even though that was in a different timeline. He was there for his friends.

Some things never changed.

Shifting her books in her arms, Jackie clutched them to her chest with one arm and reached down between her and Steven with the other hand. She slipped her fingers between Steven’s and he curled his fingers around hers without complaint.

That was something that Jackie hadn’t expected from Steven, the lack of complaints. He fell into the boyfriend role a lot easier than he had when they first started dating. Steven didn’t question when she held his hand in public or straightened his clothes, dusting them off. He accepted all of her touches as if he had been receiving them for a long time, as if it was only natural that she did all of them.

Steven’s classroom came up first, but the both of them bypassed it as Steven continued walking with her toward her class. Jackie bit her lip to keep from making a comment despite how much she wanted to squeal and coo at the boyfriend behavior. He would have passed it off as wasting time and not wanting to go to class, but she didn’t care.

When she stood on her toes to kiss him lightly on his cheek, Steven leaned into the touch before straightening up and turning back down the hall. Jackie watched him for a moment as he walked down the hall. If it weren’t for the long curls with the blonde still in them—a leftover from his childhood that would be lost as soon as he decided to cut them—he was just like 1979 Steven. Jackie had to keep reminding herself that they were in fact the same person.

Taking her seat in class Jackie cupped the back of her neck in her hands and massaged her nape, rolling her neck.

She had had a discussion with 1979 Steven about his hair. He had stared at her blankly as she massaged his scalp and rambled about eumelanin and hair science and how his hair had darkened as he got older after puberty and how stuff like that was so weird how it affected some people and not others like poor redheads. Jackie had gotten irritated with him for not paying attention but he had just laughed and told her he couldn’t believe she knew the word “eumelanin” but then accused him of making up words when he taught her zen.

This Steven hadn’t taught her zen. They didn’t have their zen lessons that had let her know one of the things that made Steven who he was. This Steven didn’t have to and he hadn’t said a thing whenever she utilized his zen. Jackie had to assume that he thought she learned it from observing him.

Jackie was beginning to realize that she was erasing moments with her old Steven. She was rewriting her history and her chest ached at the thought. She had heard Buddy and Eric talk about paradoxes and parallel timelines. It gave her a headache but it also gave her hope that somewhere else, she and her old Steven still had all of the good moments existing out there.

Somewhere in another universe, there had to be a sad and broken hearted Jackie Burkhart pining over Steven Hyde that she left an imprint of. And although someone as beautiful as her shouldn’t have to be alone and miserable, at least those memories of love were more than just figments flashing in her mind but actual moments written into their history.

* * *

It was easier when he was an outsider, back when he was viewing everything around him with a clinical eye and when none of it affected him. Back when he was just the closeted rich kid that knew it was better to treat others with the kindness he himself deserved.

It had been almost a week since the ice skating fiasco and Kelso had been avoiding the basement. Buddy didn’t mind it. Out of all of them, Kelso was his least favorite person and the least amount of time Buddy had to spend in his presence the better.

Eric had claimed he was being biased because he only knew Kelso from Jackie’s perspective but it was bullshit and Buddy called Eric out for being loyal to a creep. It still bothered him how Eric always compared Jackie to the devil. The nicknames never felt justified despite the fact that the both of them didn’t care much for the other. He knew Jackie found Eric severely lacking and unattractive but knew he was a nice guy, but Eric’s dislike seemed misplaced as if Jackie was the only one of his friends he could direct all of his frustration at when it came to any insults or jokes.

The one Buddy really didn’t understand about the whole matter was Jackie. It was his opinion that she didn’t owe the asshole shit, but she still felt bad for getting in the way of Hyde and Kelso’s friendship.

_ “I’m not sorry for having feelings for Steven. It just should never have been a choice for him to pick me or Michael and it’s starting to feel like that’s what’s going on.” _

Buddy held his tongue despite the many things he wanted to say about the basement gang and their relationships with each other. It wasn’t his place to tick off all of the reasons Kelso just wasn’t worth it. No matter how much he wanted to do just that when he, Hyde, and Eric entered the basement and found Kelso playing Mouse Trap with Fez.

“Kelso!” Eric greeted him with more enthusiasm than Buddy felt Kelso was worthy of. “Dude. Where have you been all week?”

Kelso shrugged his shoulders and leaned back on the couch spreading his arms across the back of it. “Busy training for the last meet.”

“Yeah, Donna really clobbered you at practice.” Buddy snickered, remembering the incident when he went with Mitch to interview some of the wrestlers about the upcoming event. He was sure the beating was partially fueled by her anger at Kelso and partially fueled by the tension of withholding sex from Eric.

Kelso pouted, directing his glare at Buddy before shifting his focus to Hyde and giving him a tight lipped smile.

“Well look who it is, Fez. It’s the girlfriend stealer.”

Buddy shared a look with Eric and sighed deeply, the inhale shaking his frame. Eric shook his head and held up his hand, preparing to act as the mediator.

“Kelso—“

“I mean, first it was Donna,” Kelso cut Eric off, standing up and making his way to the deep freeze and grabbing a popsicle. “He kept trying that last year but nothing worked and now he’s moved on to Jackie. Who’s next, Hyde? Patty?”

Buddy closed his eyes and squeezed them tight. He remembered that. He had secretly rooted for Hyde to end up with Donna so that Eric would remain single. Actually getting to know the three of them, he was now glad that Donna’s feelings never strayed. She and Hyde would never have worked out and Buddy liked the two of them too much now to want them to have been subjected to what would have been a failure of a relationship.

But Kelso was wrong about comparing the two pursuits. Sure it was a shitty thing to do when Hyde knew that Donna’s feelings lied with Eric Forman, but pursuing a relationship with Jackie wasn’t the same.

Kelso had cheated and strung Jackie along. Jackie had broken up with him and had been single for almost half a year before she dated another guy and she didn’t even have to wait if she didn’t want to. It wasn’t as if there was a lack of guys that wanted to hook up with Jackie Burkhart—some more honorable than others who just wanted to say they were able to do it.

Jackie had been single for months and she had been Hyde’s  _ friend _ for all of that time. Buddy may have taken up the position of best friend, but there was something about the two that he was sure not even Donna could compare when it came to her friendship with either of them and she was a best friend to the both of them.

There was no real pursuit, it just happened. They were just two friends who fell together in a way that felt natural to the both of them. If Buddy hadn’t been so close to the group, he might have assumed the both of them had already been dating months ago with the way they were together.

“And it’s not like they’re gonna last anyway.” Kelso waved his popsicle around before stuffing it into his mouth. “They’re going to break up eventually.”

Hyde had no remark, but it didn’t stop Buddy from moving so he was between the two warring friends. Hyde didn’t have to say anything. The anger rolling off of him at Kelso’s words was palpable.

“If it’s not Hyde finding her annoying and unbearable, it’s gonna be Jackie dumping him ‘cause there’s no way he’s ever going to be the boyfriend she actually wants.”

Buddy chanced a glance at Hyde before swiveling his attention to the neutral parties in the basement. Eric’s face had settled into a twisted sort of grimace as he weighed Kelso’s argument in his mind and Fez looked like he did when he ate two pounds of chocolate in one sitting.

This is exactly what Buddy knew was going to happen. He had been gleeful at the thought of Kelso finally getting what was coming to him, that he would finally catch on that Jackie Burkhart wasn't going to wait around and be his ol’ reliable. He was ecstatic at the idea of Michael Kelso seeing the girl he hurt by being a no good cheat being happy with someone new. But he also knew that it wasn’t going to end well when Jackie’s heart turned her in the direction of Steven Hyde.

Kelso and Hyde had been best friends since they were in grammar school. They had been joined at the hip the moment they were both made to sit inside during recess as punishment for different first grade crimes. Whenever Buddy heard about one of them getting up to mischief or getting in trouble, the other’s name was usually tied to the same story.

Maybe that’s why it wasn’t so weird to Buddy that they both had at some point fallen for the same girl. Eric and Hyde were like brothers sure, but it had always been Hyde and Kelso.

At least that’s how it seemed before last summer.

There was an odd shift in their relationship that was easy to miss considering they always hung out in a group. Buddy may have even missed it if he hadn’t been adopted into it, but Hyde and Kelso weren’t the best friends they used to be. It seemed like their friendship was just a side effect of being a part of the same group. And maybe Kelso was just figuring that out.

“He didn’t steal your girlfriend, Kelso,” Eric tried to reason with him. “Jackie hasn’t been your girlfriend since early July. Remember? Back when you were caught cheating on her?”

Kelso scoffed, his mouth purple from the popsicle melting against his lips.

“Look, Kelso.” Hyde moved around Buddy to square up in front of his best friend. “It’s not like I went out of my way just to mess with you. Jackie’s been my friend just as much as she’s been your ex. It’s just something that happened. No plans. She’s  _ my _ girlfriend now, so get over it.”

“I mean, come on,” Eric shrugged his shoulders playfully and grinned at Kelso, “you said it yourself. Jackie’s  _ a lot _ . No one is going to go through that just to burn you, man. If Hyde wants to sell his soul to Satan, let him.”

“ _ Forman _ .”

“Hey. It’s devil remarks or eternal sounds of disgust. Take your pick.”

“Can your stupidity wait until we hash this shit out?”

“What makes you think talking is going to make it better?” Kelso tugged at his hair and his hands shook from how tight he held on. “God, it’s always about words with you two!”

“You should be glad it’s just words,” Buddy muttered, rolling his eyes and taking a seat on the wagon wheel table. If it came to blows he was sure he wouldn’t be much help to stop anything and if Donna was around she would probably turn on Kelso if he opened his mouth and the wrong words came out. And Buddy would cheer her on the entire time she wailed on Kelso.

Another friendship he had never expected but thanked Jackie for introducing to him.

Donna had always been a cliche to him—just the “cool” girl that was one of the guys. She was a girl pretty enough to get passing glances from boys in Buddy’s social circles and gorgeous enough to be the untouchable ideal of nerdy boys who could fantasize about the girl who cared more about music and if someone was a good person than the ranks of the school social hierarchy.

She was that tomboy that found it easier to make friends with guys than girls and was at ease with it because she would rather have her close knit friendships with the boys she had palled around with since she had wobbly knees and was taller than everyone in class. Donna was secure in who she was and her interests and wasn’t going to change for anyone just to join the girl club even if it meant she had no one to play with when she wanted to break out her Barbies.

But it didn’t mean she wasn’t lonely and lost in all of the testosterone.

It didn’t matter that she wrinkled her nose in distaste when Jackie held up skirts to her body or pretended to gag when Jackie spread a mud mask on her face. The two of them were as different as day and night and yet it worked for the both of them.

No matter how often Jackie sighed dramatically whenever Donna failed to comply to her demands of traditionally feminine acts or how often Donna rolled her eyes when Jackie cared a little too much about the opinions of other people, the two of them loved each other in a way that Buddy would have envied if they didn’t love him just the same.

Once upon a time, Buddy had been jealous of Donna. She had the history and was born the right gender to attract the attention of Eric Forman. She had the ginger strands of hair that glistened in the sun in a way that the boy he once liked adored. Now she was his friend and Buddy liked her more than he thought he would considering he didn’t think much of her even before he had developed a crush on Eric the year before.

And knowing her now that she was his friend, he knew Donna would be sick and tired of the Kelso dilemma.

“This discussion is getting circular,” Buddy griped. “Hyde apologizes, Kelso doesn’t want to hear it, and repeat.”

“Yes,” Fez agreed, nodding his head sadly. “Donna would be disappointed in all of you.”

“You’re right, Fez.” Buddy stands up from where he’s perched and gestures to the basement door. “Let’s go. We don’t want to be a part of this and end up a target for her wrath.”

“This is none of your business anyway,” Kelso called after him as he is on his way out. Hearing that, Buddy paused in the doorway and turned to him, lips set so straight and tight they practically disappeared from his face.

“None of my business, huh?”

Once upon a time that would have been true and Buddy wouldn’t have cared. He would have been a temporary fixture in their lives and wouldn’t have cared if the friendships imploded. It would have meant that he didn’t need to find an excuse when he left them in his dust as he packed up and moved on away from this small town and all of the small people in it.

But unfortunately for Buddy, these small town people made themselves a little too comfortable in his life. There was no moving on and away from them.

It was so much easier when he was just the closeted rich boy that had a smile for everyone. He was too real now and too fixed into this ridiculous, mixed pot of a group.

“You made it my business, Kelso, when you decided to take jabs at my best friend and wish ill on her relationship.” Buddy closed his eyes and swallowed deeply, trying to reign in the hateful words building up inside of him. “You’re so incredibly selfish. You need to get over it like how Jackie got over you.”

So not all of them were easily swallowed, but at least those parting words were a softer blow than the verbal beatdown that was rioting in his head for release.

He was never going to be friends with Michael Kelso. If it weren’t for his loyalty to Jackie, Buddy would have found other reasons for his dislike and he had. He didn’t like how Kelso didn’t look girls in the eye when he spoke to them. He didn’t like how Kelso spoke about Shelly so freely without knowing her. He didn’t like how Kelso was a hypocrite that hit on Donna and tried groping her as often as he attempted that with Jackie.

Fez had called Kelso a “sweet, bumbling buffoon” once. Buddy could see how it was easy to sideline Kelso into that label. Kelso could be a nice guy when he wanted to be, but under the goofy smiles, the dopey expressions, and the dumb boy charms, Buddy could only see him as a press on rhinestone that Jackie had once mistaken for a diamond.

“Fez and I are gonna go find the girls and endear ourselves to them ‘cause when they find out you guys have been fighting over this shit again, they’re not going to be happy and I kind of like being on their good side.” Buddy held the door open for Fez as he shrugged his coat on and made his escape up the steps. “It’s nice being the guys they’re never mad at.”

“Well ain’t that swell for you,” Hyde called after them, his voice laced with his usual dose of sarcasm with a side of bitterness.

Buddy wasn’t going to get involved anymore unless Jackie absolutely needed him to. He wasn’t in on what made Hyde and Kelso friends. Buddy may have joined their circle, but most of the time he was still an outsider because of how new he was.

It was probably why Jackie and Fez were his favorite people in the group. The two of them were the most recent of the inductees, only becoming friends with everyone the year before. The three of them formed their own bond like the original four had theirs, mostly based on the fact that they didn’t have the history the others did.

Buddy and Fez crossed the driveway and walked around the hedge that created the boundary line between the Pinciotti and Forman houses. They were likely to find Donna and Jackie in the kitchen doing their homework. One of their few similarities was that they took their studies more seriously than the others and would do their work away from them for some peace.

They opened the kitchen door without knocking and found them sitting at the kitchen table, books and binders scattered on the table top.

“Hey,” Buddy greeted them, shrugging off his coat and taking a seat. “What’s with [the outfit](https://twitter.com/Nindio_art/status/1263407686877679617?s=20)?”

Jackie sighed and leaned back, showing off more of her white and pink soda shop waitress uniform. She took her little hat off and smoothed down her hair. “It’s my new uniform. I got a job at Candy Heaven down at the mall.”

“That’s not even the best part.” Donna giggled and lifted up a pair of wings from somewhere on the floor. “She’s a Candy Heaven Angel so she comes with wings.”

Fez gasped dramatically. “Can you get me discounts on candy? Like if I wanted to fill a bag with five pounds of candy?”

“Fezzie. I’m not enabling your candy binges. You don’t need five pounds of candy every week.”

“A week?” Fez averted his gaze nervously. “Yes, yes. It takes me a whole week to eat five pounds of candy…”

The three of them exchanged knowing looks but chose to avoid it. It was a miracle that Fez’s mouth wasn’t riddled with cavities.

“I’ve only worked there for two days and I already like it  _ way _ more than the Cheese Palace.” Jackie drummed her pen against her notebook. “My boss is a little old lady whose hair reminds me a bit of cotton candy and the shop is so much cuter with rainbows and blue sky designs and all of the bright colors. If I have to work at a food place at least it’s one that’s as adorable as me.”

“Speaking of adorable,” Buddy couldn’t contain his giggles, “how do you keep ending up with jobs that have cutesy uniforms? Has Hyde seen it yet?”

“No.” Jackie shook her head, her curls falling all over her shoulders. “I was going to go over there and wait for him but Michael was there. I tried talking to him and he seemed to understand—”

“Until he tried putting his arm around you,” Donna scoffed, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “He’s such a dillhole.”

“Yeah, we just came back from over there. He was shouting at Hyde again and Eric was trying to keep the peace.”

Donna’s eyes went wide and she dropped her textbooks on the floor in her scramble out of her seat. “How can you leave Eric alone with them?” She shouted as she flung her kitchen door open and marched out. “He’s not strong enough to keep them apart!”

“She’s not wrong,” Jackie explained, picking up her copy of  _ Walden _ . “I wish Michael would just drop the whole thing. It’s not like he would like who I am now anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Buddy reached for the bag of chips the girls had left out amongst their school stuff.

“Jackie’s too complicated for him now,” Fez took over the job of explaining, stuffing a hand into the chip bag Buddy was now cradling. “Once girls show more complexity beyond being hot he loses interest. He did the same with Laurie when she wanted a more emotionally satisfying relationship and it’s why he never actually hears anything Donna says. Kelso may legally be an adult, but he has the maturity of an eighth grader.”

“You noticed all of that, Fez?” Jackie smiled at him fondly, impressed with his observation. “I’m sure once he finds some purpose in life he’ll grow up a bit.”

“I like Kelso, but he’s a big doof.” Fez wrinkled his nose in distaste, but smiled good humoredly. “I’m happier for you now.”

Buddy wasn’t ignorant of the crush Fez had once had on Jackie. Or the fact that some of the feelings still lingered. But lust wasn’t love.

Fez had wanted Jackie and would have made a better boyfriend for her than Kelso, but anyone could have taken Jackie’s role as Fez’s intended girlfriend. As much as he liked looking at her, Fez didn’t  _ know _ Jackie. At least not in a way that would encourage love.

He had idolized an idyllic version of Jackie and, like Kelso, knew just enough to know a lot about her that seemed to be knowing her well, but in reality it wasn’t much. It was all stuff that if anyone actually listened to Jackie’s ramblings and chatter about the Burkhart family they would know it. It was the kind of braggart tidbits that Buddy knew from conversations Mr. Burkhart had with his own father.

None of that was  _ knowing _ Jackie and because of who she was she would never open herself up like that to be seen as less than, especially in the eyes of someone that thought she was perfect.

Fez didn’t truly see Jackie, so any feelings he may have had were negligible to all of their friends. It was probably why Jackie found it easy to stay friends with him and why Donna didn’t try to steer her in his direction despite them becoming closer. It was probably why Hyde didn’t feel any guilt directed toward Fez about becoming Jackie’s boyfriend when he shouldn’t have even been an option.

Hyde was an oxymoron. He was a jerk and decent person. He was lazy and a hard worker. There was so much about him that Buddy was at odds with, but the thing that made him so in favor of Hyde being in a relationship with his best friend was the fact that he didn’t take Jackie Burkhart at face value.

And maybe that was why Buddy was so at ease with Fez having leftover feelings for Jackie. Buddy would never be as pretty as Jackie nor would he be as soft, but Fez would also never fulfill Jackie’s desire for a partner that gave just as good as she did and grounded her when her attitude was loftier than her stature.

Buddy had expected Jackie to complain that Hyde didn’t do what boyfriends were supposed to. He expected to have jiffy pop and bitch sessions with her about how Hyde didn’t buy her flowers or take her out to dine in fancy French restaurants where only Jackie would be able to read the menu. But that never happened.

Fez would have easily done all of that. He had done it for Patty and would do it for any other girl that caught his fancy after Patty and him were done. Which was probably going to be soon going by the switch in conversation.

“I think she’s bored of me.” Fez munched sadly on a handful of potato chips. Jackie scooted away from him when he started spraying crumbs everywhere, sliding her papers away from him and stowing them back into the oversized purse she used as her school bag.

“What makes you say that, Fezzie?” Jackie asked once she was a safe distance from Fez’s snacking.

“She never wants to do what I want to do.” Fez huffed, pursing his lips into a pout. “Patty drags me to lectures or makes me go to protests, but she never wants to go to the mall with me for fun because the mall is a shrine to capitalism and she decided to become vegan and now  _ I  _ have to be a vegan. And she doesn’t let me use my nickname for her anymore. I liked Patty-Cakes.”

Buddy sighed and looked at the expression on Jackie’s face. It probably mirrored his own. He wanted Fez to be happy━he wasn’t going to wish for his relationship to fail━but it was obvious that Patty and Fez weren’t compatible.

“Have you considered breaking up with her?” Jackie asked, snatching the bag of chips from Fez and handing him a napkin to clean his face of the grease left behind. “Also, stop with the greasy snacks. You’re going to break out like Eric.”

“Oh, I have.” Fez nodded enthusiastically. “But I like making out with her. And Kelso says it’s just something I have to put up with until she puts out.”

“Yeah, and do you see how well that worked out for him.” Buddy rolled his eyes. “It’s what he did with Jackie. He didn’t actually want to spend time with her and was miserable, but what he wanted was sex and so he suffered through all of that stuff she liked and you know what happened after that.”

“Right.” Fez smiled broadly, finally getting it. “He cheated and Jackie ended up making out with Hyde.”

“What?” Jackie’s voice had dropped into a low, threatening tone. It was the tone Buddy was used to hearing when she was told they didn’t carry something in her petite size. “Suffer through? He should have felt blessed to be in my presence! And now he’s being an ass about someone else actually wanting to spend time with me? I’m going to rip out his eyelashes one by one.”

They watched Jackie shove her arms into her coat sleeves and grab her oversized purse. She marched out of the kitchen and they realized that was probably the last they would see of her for the rest of the day.

Buddy and Fez sat in the Pinciottis’ kitchen, alone for the first time in a long time. The last time they had been truly alone was before Buddy had confessed his feelings.

Jackie was his best friend, but Fez was a close second. Once upon a time he would have considered Eric for the role considering all of their similarities and common interests, but that didn’t end up being the case. He thought Eric was a nice guy, and he was, but Fez was the one he spoke to and had fun with doing whatever.

They bonded over their confusion of American Football and argued over which candy was the best. Fez taught him about his native language and homeland and Buddy explained to him the ridiculousness of the English language and the differences in customs.

Buddy loved his cheesy puns and his mild obsession with cologne and clothing. Fez was the first person he wanted to talk to when something interesting happened and wanted someone to laugh with.

Fez was someone Buddy wanted to be happy. Even if it meant he wouldn’t be the person that made him happy.

“You should talk to Patty.” Buddy slapped Fez’s shoulder with the back of his hand good naturedly. “I’m sure she would be willing to compromise. If she likes you, she should want to do some stuff you like just like how you do things she likes.”

“You think so?”

Buddy nodded and flashed him a reassuring smile. “Yeah. And I’ll always go to the mall with you if you wanna go. We can visit Jackie and get a pound of those chocolates that look like rocks and mess with Kelso.”

Fez laughed, nudging his shoulder against Buddy’s.

It would have been easier when Buddy’s plan was to be temporary, like the furniture his mother was always swapping out of their mansion whenever she got tired of looking at them.

But when Fez laughed, his brown eyes crinkling with delight, Buddy couldn’t help but desire to be something more fixed like an etching in stone or the stains and cigarette burns on the bench seats of a Vista Cruiser he was growing fond of riding around in.

* * *

Jackie loved celebrations, especially when they were about her or the things she loved.

“Hey.” She smacked a kiss on Steven’s cheek before settling in the empty seat next to him at his usual table in the cafeteria.

“Can you at least hold off on your displays of affection until I’m not trying to eat?” Eric glared at her over his bologna sandwich.

“Whatever.” Jackie shot him a glare of her own and pulled out a cellophane package full of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies tied with a blue ribbon from her purse. “These are for you Steven. Don’t worry, Donna helped.”

Jackie could have gotten help from the cook but they wouldn’t have had the same amount of patience as Mrs. Forman or Donna and would have tried to make the cookies for her. She couldn’t ask Mrs. Forman because she wasn’t good at keeping secrets and the Pinciottis’ kitchen was the only other kitchen Jackie was comfortable with using. She had spent more time there and the Formans’ kitchen than the one in the Burkhart mansion.

She had moved with a familiarity in the Pinciotti kitchen that had confused Donna at first until Jackie covered it by saying she got used to the layout when scrounging for snacks when she slept over.

“Cool.” Steven smiled fondly at her and tugged on the ribbon to undo the knot.

“Yeah.” Donna smirked at Jackie before stealing one of the cookies. “I cracked the eggs and made sure they didn’t burn. I’m starting to think Jackie has some sort of attention deficiency disorder, which would explain a lot.”

Rolling her eyes, Jackie pulled out her sack lunch. Hot lunch would have been preferred, but she had never been a fan of school lunch. Cold roasted vegetables were better than hot mystery chilli especially considering Steven and Fez has warned all of their friends of it.

“So what’s the occasion?” Eric reached for a cookie, but Jackie slapped his hand away. Donna could get away with stealing one because she had helped. “I can’t imagine you getting something for someone for no reason.”

“One month anniversary,” Donna snickered, breaking her cookie in half and sharing it with Eric.

“And because there’s no more winter sports, we’re going to go to the new arcade in Kenosha after school.” Jackie beamed at Steven.

They had agreed to the date over the weekend. She had to keep herself from laughing when she brought it up to Steven and gave her suggestion of where they could go. He had probably expected her to demand he take her to a nice restaurant. Jackie had expected him to give her a disgusted look, put off that she would even bother him with something like anniversaries.

Her old Steven had been annoyed when she came up with anniversaries to celebrate. For Jackie it was easier to celebrate the anniversary of when they made out in a photo booth than when they got together because it had taken forever for them to make it official. They had been together, but no labels had been used so she couldn’t exactly pinpoint important moments in their relationship.

This Steven had simply responded that they could get pizza for dinner.

He hadn’t questioned the way she had asked if he wanted to go somewhere instead of demand that they did. Steven just looked at her for a moment and then asked if she wanted to leave right after school.

Eric gaped at her, cookie held up to his open mouth. “The new arcade in Kenosha?  _ We _ were supposed to go there on Friday. Just the guys.” He flailed his hand holding the cookie for emphasis. “With Kelso.”

Jackie rolled her eyes and got back to spearing a carrot with her fork. The boys had finally got back to their normal routine after Jackie had stormed into the basement and blew up on Michael. She had yelled at him until he said he would drop the whole thing as long as she stopped shouting at him. Everything was almost back to how it was the first time Jackie and Steven had gotten together in 1977.

“Don’t be weird about it, Forman.” Steven has his hand on the back of Jackie’s chair and she leaned back into his arm. “Me going today doesn’t affect us going Friday.”

“Yeah, Eric.” Donna rolled her eyes and bit into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “You’re stuck at work today anyway.”

Eric grumbled but ended the discussion by finally biting into the cookie. He paused in chewing and then chewed slowly before finally swallowing.

“What?” Jackie narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you going to complain that it’s not as good as your mommy’s?”

“No.” Eric glared back at her. “These taste  _ exactly _ like her cookies. Did you make my mom bake you cookies and passed them off as your own?”

“No!” They tasted like Kitty Forman’s cookies because Jackie had learned the recipe in the future. She had asked for it again in the past so she could make them for Steven and had bullied Donna into helping her.

Donna took the rest of Eric's half of their cookie and shoved it into his mouth. “I helped her bake them, Eric. I  _ know _ she made them. Besides, your mom’s been teaching us how to bake and stuff.”

“And yet, she still can’t bake a pie,” Steven teased her, biting into a cookie.

“Construction is easy.” Jackie scrunched up her nose in frustration. “The actual baking part…”

“I’m telling you,” Donna smiled, taking a bite of one of Jackie’s carrots, “it’s an attention deficiency thing.”

“Oh, boy,” Eric muttered, looking over Jackie’s shoulder. Before she could turn and see what was wrong, Fez slumped into the seat next to her and buried his face into her shoulder.

“Ew! Fez, we discussed this.” Jackie shoved him off of her. “You don’t cry on cashmere.”

“But I’m so sad, Jackie!”

“Yeah, we know.” Steven deadpanned, pulling Jackie closer to his side and away from Fez. “You’ve been doubling up on the candy.”

Patty and Fez had broken up the week before. Fez had attempted to communicate with her properly, try and find more common ground. But Patty wasn’t interested and believed they were too different even though he was sweet.

_ “Her skin isn’t even  _ that _ nice. You can do better.” _ Jackie had tried to cheer Fez up when he told her and Donna. Donna had pursed her lips and slapped her shoulder with the back of her hand, shaking her head.

“I just want to hang out with my friends, you know?” Fez sniffed and looked at Jackie pleadingly.

Jackie shifted her gaze to Donna who was making herself seem heavily invested in the book she had brought to lunch. Eric was even worse at looking nonchalant. He scratched the back of his head and looked everywhere but at her.

“You could hang out with Donna and Eric,” Jackie suggested, her tone sharp as she tried to get their attention.

“No. They said they were on Kelso duty today.”

“What the hell is Kelso duty?” Steven scoffed.

“Donna and I are hanging out with Kelso before I go to work just so he knows we’re all friends and everything is fine,” Eric explained staring pointedly at Donna. Donna rolled her eyes and Jackie couldn’t help the smirk she gave her in return.

Back in the original timeline, Donna and Michael had been really close despite the unwanted come ons and selfish things he did so Jackie didn’t doubt that the two of them would get over this rough patch. She hoped that she and Michael could be friends again. Even with her and Eric’s antagonistic relationship, she still considered him her friend and they got along well enough to hang out in a group. Jackie and Michael just had to reach that state of their friendship where he knew they weren’t meant to be and weren’t as compatible as he thought they were.

It was too bad that Michael was such a child around this time. He had the potential to mature but he needed a goal to get him there. When motivated, Michael could really buckle down.

When their lunch period finished, Jackie grabbed Fez by the crook of his arm and dragged him away from the others. “Walk and talk, Fez.”

Fez immediately jumped into a rushed venting of his feelings that Jackie could only claim to have understood a quarter of. Maybe an eighth.

“Fez.  _ Slower _ ,” she demanded with a roll of her eyes. “And in English because there’s no way that was all in one language.”

Fez shot her a glare, his lower lip jutting out in a pout. “I don’t like being single.” His glare softened as he stared off into space. “I have seen the promised land and it has make-outs.”

“But you were about to be forced not to ever eat bacon again. Or cheese.” Jackie scrunched up her nose in distaste. It had taken her seventeen years in her original timeline to eat bacon and that had been depressing to discover what she had been missing out on. “This is the dairy state. You were never going to survive as a vegan.”

“Yeah.” Fez nodded forlornly in agreement. “And I need my chocolate milk.”

Jackie gave him a quizzical look. “How the hell do you not break out? Everything you eat has sugar.”

Fez shrugged, turning the corner with her. “Genetics?”

Jackie shrugged back, accepting his answer. For now. She was sure he had some sort of skin care routine he wasn’t giving up. The both of them were going to have to come up with something to make sure Eric didn’t ruin his school photos this coming spring.

But Eric’s unfortunate face situation wasn’t why she had pulled Fez away from everyone. The others didn’t mind hanging out with Fez on a normal day, but after the termination of his relationships he tended to get even more needier than usual. Jackie had an anniversary to celebrate and wasn’t going to let anything ruin her redo of her first first anniversary date with Steven.

“Why don’t you just hang out with Buddy?”

“Hang out with Buddy?” Fez whispered, narrowing his eyes at her. “Hang out with Buddy, you say?” His voice raised in volume with every sentence. “You are going to abandon me to enjoy your love and push me off on Buddy?”

“Fez.” Jackie stopped walking and shot him a disapproving look, arms crossed in front of her chest. “He’s your friend and he did say he would hang out with you after the Patty stuff, right?”

Fez turned his gaze guiltily towards the floor, pouting and wringing his fingers together. Jackie raised her brows at him in challenge and readjusted her stance to cock her hip out. He stomped in place, his backpack’s strap slipping off of his shoulder. He looked around, making sure the hall was clear of wandering students.

“I like hanging out with Buddy and I miss our good times together, but…it doesn’t feel good knowing he has feelings for me and I can’t reciprocate.”

Jackie patted his shoulder sympathetically. She had been in that position with Fez earlier in the year and she reminded him of that. “Why don’t you guys talk about it? Like have a  _ real _ discussion.”

“That’s what you guys said I should do with Patty and look at how that ended!” Fez flailed his arms around, dropping his backpack completely.

“Fez. Fez!” Jackie grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. She gripped him tightly and looked him right in the eye. “It’s not going to be like how it was with Patty. She was just someone you could make out with. Buddy is your friend who cares about you and you care about him. Have the talk Fez.”

Fez turned up pleading eyes, slightly squatting to make himself smaller than her. “Will you come have the talk with me?”

“No!” Jackie refused his request. Fez cringed at the volume of her voice, his shoulders hiking up to his ears in defense. “But,” Jackie settled into a more soothing tone, “I’ll take you on a friendly mall date and introduce you to my boss, Mrs. Mora, after you talk to him.”

“Really?” Fez perked right up. He had been asking to meet the Candy Heaven owner ever since he found out about her new job. Jackie was worried he would embarrass her with his weirdness, but she wouldn’t mind him becoming her coworker.

“Yeah!” Jackie nodded reassuringly. “Just don’t do that thing you do.”

Fez nodded back, but then his expression slipped into one of confusion. “Which thing exactly?”

Jackie patted his shoulders and nudged him into walking down the hall again. “We’ll work on it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some notes on stuff in the fic for y'all:
> 
> 1\. It's a headcanon of mine that as they get older Donna still can't cook to save her life but is an amazing baker and that Jackie can't bake at all but is able to cook better than Donna. Not an amazing cook but better.
> 
> 2\. As someone that dealt with both physical and emotional abuse from parents...I know that it’s easy to think about leaving and never looking back and then feeling guilty and weird for still loving your parents and wanting their approval. It’s always weird when you know you don’t deserve to be treated the way you are being treated but still feel that attachment, especially when your parents have their moments where they are loving.
> 
> I’m taking a small cue from Hyde’s reactions to the guys insulting his mom before and even after she abandons him...I imagine his feelings about her are complex.
> 
> 3\. I’ve seen headcanons that Jackie quit her job cuz Jack no longer kept her cut off because Kelso ran off to California and they broke up. I headcanon that Jack continued to keep her cut off as a sort of punishment (which left her with no funds to do anything to stave off the boredom) for the Kelso engagement mess (he didn’t even want her to date him, he would have been pissed off about an engagement and grateful that it didn’t happen) and also because it would make sense that he would slow down on the stuff he bought Jackie and the money he gave her if he was concerned about some of his illegal activities. It would be easier to control what a teenager does and play the “I’m the parent you’re the child” card than to keep his spouse from figuring everything out and getting suspicious if she was no longer able to live the life she had been living.
> 
> 4\. Im going to call out some weird things like how Hyde had a sweater he should not have been able to afford in s1 (his Pendleton Westerly cardigan from Ski Trip) and also the amount of coats he has. I think it’s cute that the cast had different coats that they wore mostly because they live in a place that was cold most of the year so they had different coats for different looks and idk I have a ton of coats cuz they’re part of my outfit so I cycle through like 4-5 coats in the fall and winter. They repeat looks but they still have different ones.
> 
> But...Hyde was a poor kid. I know he may have gotten some clothes from goodwill or something but Kelso had a bunch of siblings and they could have had gotten hand me downs from them. Kelso also has unnamed siblings so I'm just gonna make them up as we go.
> 
> 5\. There was a shift in Hyde’s personality entering s5. He smiled a lot more in the earlier seasons. For this it will be a sign of maturity that has him seem a lot more serious and calmer because he is older than everyone even if it’s not physically. He still pals around but he’s more chill than he already was.
> 
> 6\. I don’t really go by most of the flashbacks in Class Picture as canon mostly the ones involving Jackie because from s1 she was implied to have just met the basement gang when she started dating Kelso and that was a new relationship. It was weird that they made it seem like she knew them since she was a kid.
> 
> 7\. So...it might have become obvious, but I wasn’t a fan of how they portrayed Donna as a feminist but then had her siding with Kelso and his bro code nonsense. It was just weird to me because Donna should have been a little pissed off that Jackie's autonomy wasn’t even being considered at all. She wasn’t property that Kelso could claim. It didn't matter that Kelso was her friend longer 'cause Jackie was her friend as well and they were close by that point.
> 
> 8\. I actually don't have room here for my comments about what i think about Jackie and Kelso's sex life...it's long lol
> 
> 9\. Adding some headcanons for Kelso so he’s not just a really good looking guy. He’s in great shape and he had random wrestling equipment in The Third Wheel when he wrestled Big Rhonda—so why not make him part of the wrestling team?
> 
> 10\. i was always weirded out by some retconning stuff about Jackie cooking and baking. when she first learned to bake a pie it was implied she couldn't cook just cuz she didn't try. she helped make a pie but the problem was that she kept getting distracted and burning it but there was no mention that she couldn't actually construct it when she got some direction. so as cute as JH was when Hyde didn't want to tell her the cookies were bad it made no sense

**Author's Note:**

> I got the title for the fic from one of the time travel episodes from the original series of Star Trek.
> 
> It's my first fic for T7S and I just had so many AU ideas for JH and I had been throwing headcanons and stuff at my friend Kitty and well I needed to flesh one of them out.
> 
> I hope my fellow zennies enjoy this fic as I explore writing for this fandom.


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